§ Mr. BluntTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department's budget was in the(a) 1998–99 financial year and (b) 2003–04 financial year at 1998–99 prices, excluding expenditure from the contingency reserve. [136740]
§ Mr. IngramThe figure for 1998–99 is £22,240 million. That is a cash figure as the Department was controlled on a cash basis until the end of financial year 2000–01.
From 2001–02 onwards, Resource Accounting and Budgeting became the basis for planning and controlling public expenditure. From that year the Defence budget has been set on a Resource basis, which includes accrued costs rather than cash. The Budget figures for 2003–04 are therefore set on a completely different basis to those for 1998–99, and the two sets of figures are not directly comparable. The 2003–04 Budget consists of two separate elements, a Net Resource Cost budget of £31,903 billion and a Capital budget of £6,128 billion.
These figures are at current prices as there is little merit in providing them at the 1998–99 price base.
Figures for both years are exclusive of Armed Forces Pension Scheme amounts.