To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2024 to Question 24424 on Armed Forces: Defence Equipment, for what reason his Department has linked the annual budget cycle in 2024 to the announcement for future funding in the 2025-26 financial year, in the context of the annual budget cycle being for in-year spending adjustments.

The Department runs an Annual Budget Cycle (ABC) every year. However, this is not solely for in year spending adjustments, it is a financial planning exercise to review the Department's ten-year forecast.

The most recent ABC conducted in 2023 reviewed the ten-year forecast from 2023-24 to 2032-33 and the current ABC process underway is reviewing the ten-year forecast from 2024-25 to 2033-34. This will reflect the recent announcement of our planned trajectory to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence.