Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government over what periods in the last 30 years there has been a threat to the existence of the United Kingdom; and what was the average percentage of gross domestic product spent on defence in each of those years.

The UK has, and continues to face, a broad range of complex threats both at home and abroad.

The table below shows the proportion of gross domestic product that the UK has spent on defence each year since 1985. This data is published annually by NATO as part of its Defence Expenditure publications.