Ministry of Defense

Sessional Index

This report is the result of an extensive study that was undertaken to review the existing policy context of Ministry of Defence (MOD) disposals in England, and to advise Government on how it should seek to obtain value for money whilst having regard to the wider interest of Government. The research process involved five main areas of work - a literature search, a review of all relevant policy guidance, interviews and written consultations, seminars for property professionals and nine detailed case studies.

This annual statistical compendium from the Ministry of Defence contains a wide range of data relating to the armed forces, defence expenditure, service and civilian personnel and defence activities. Findings for the period 2003-04 include: i) defence spending was the Government's fourth highest expenditure, with a provisional outturn against the Departmental Expenditure Limits of £37.2 billion, and a total value of MoD fixed assets of £86.3 billion as of March 2003; ii) the total number of MoD personnel fell by 34 per cent between 1990 to 2004, with service personnel down by 32 per cent; iii) the proportion of serving personnel from the ethnic minorities stood at 4.9 per cent at April 2004, compared with 4.3 per cent the previous year; iv) in 2002-03, MoD net expenditure on R&D activity totalled £2.7 billion; and v) the MoD spent around £1.7 billion on conflict prevention activities worldwide during the year 2003-04.