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HM Treasury · Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2026, chapter 5: expenditure by sub-function

Spending on Defence n.e.c.

Year ending March 2026 Final

£245mmillion

Spending on Defence n.e.c. was £245m in the year ending March 2026, down 6.5% (£17m) from £262m in the year ending March 2025.

▼ 6.5% · −£17m against Year ending March 2025 (previous period)

  1. HM Treasury count
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 2 September 2026
  4. Table 5.2
  5. row “2.5 Defence n.e.c.”
  6. column “2025-26”
  7. cell value 245

Year ending March 2021 to Year ending March 2026

Spending on Defence n.e.c.: Year ending March 2021 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeLabourLabour0100200202120222023202420252026Year ending March 2021: £211m £ million · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2022: £221m £ million · published 2 September 2026Year ending March 2023: £215m £ million · published 2 September 2026Year ending March 2024: £227m £ million · published 2 September 2026Year ending March 2025: £262m £ million (revised) · published 2 September 2026Year ending March 2026: £245m £ million · published 2 September 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

Public sector expenditure on services on defence n.e.c., a component of defence, in cash terms, from HM Treasury's PESA Table 5.2 (UN COFOG classification).

What this doesn’t measure

Spending by any single department or body: PESA classifies by the purpose of spending, not by who spends it.

Important caveat

PESA classifies spending by function using the UN COFOG framework, so "health" is every public body's spending on health services, not the Department of Health's budget, and "defence" follows COFOG rather than the NATO definition. Figures are outturn for the whole public sector including local government and public corporations. Cash figures rise with inflation; the real-terms table restates them at 2024-25 prices with the GDP deflator. Classification changes are footnoted in the table: student loans from 2011-12, Network Rail from 2011-12 and the treatment of EU transactions after 2020. Total managed expenditure includes accounting adjustments that are not allocated to any function.

Revision history

PeriodFirst publishedCurrentRevisionReleases
Year ending March 2025£250m£262m+£12m (+4.8%)17 July 2025 → 2 September 2026

Source

Publisher
HM Treasury
Publication
Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2026, chapter 5: expenditure by sub-function
Release
2026-09-02, published 2 September 2026
Source file
PESA_2026_CP_Chapter_5_tables.xlsx
File SHA-256
ccb4539bb837c2b6a7f9509da49bd409eb9e5a910f3332311b494291fbd33107
Retrieved
4 September 2026
Sheet
5_2
Table
Table 5.2
Row
2.5 Defence n.e.c.
Column
2025-26
Cell value
245
Geography
United Kingdom
Unit
£ million
API
/api/metrics/spend_sub_defence_not_elsewhere_classified · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–£227mYear ending March 2024£245mYear ending March 2026↑ 7.9%

Full comparison with chart

Release
2026-09-02 · publication page
Last updated
2 September 2026
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)