UK Ministry of Defence bears brunt of budget cuts

The UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) spending was hit harder than all other government departments by funding reductions announced on 5 December in the Autumn Statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

Spending reductions across government departments, which have been introduced on top of previous austerity-driven cuts, were announced in response to government predictions that GDP will slip by 0.1% in 2012, down from a forecast of 0.8% growth made at the time of the last budget.

Government spending cuts were intended to free resources for capital investment to stimulate the national economy.

Cuts of GBP245 million (USD394 million) and GBP490 million to the MoD resource budget, covering all areas of expenditure other than capital projects, were announced on 5 December for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. This represents resource budget reductions of 1% in 2013-14 and 2% in 2014-15.

Prior to 5 December, the MoD had published resource expenditure estimates of GBP24.9 billion and GBP24.7 billion for the fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. The resource budget departmental expenditure limit (DEL) for 2011-12 was set at GBP25 billion.