{"id":1984,"date":"2021-03-01T16:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/?p=1984"},"modified":"2021-03-27T17:32:23","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T17:32:23","slug":"briefing-points-in-advance-of-the-uk-government-budget-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/briefing-points-in-advance-of-the-uk-government-budget-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Briefing points in advance of the UK government budget announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/demilitarize.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Government-expenditure-1.png?w=1200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1716\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This briefing note was prepared by <strong>Dr Stuart Parkinson<\/strong>, Executive Director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sgr.org.uk\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sgr.org.uk\/\">Scientists for Global Responsibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-button-wrapper gb-button-wrapper-1cd92e5d\">\n\n<a class=\"gb-button gb-button-7e772f04 gb-button-text\" href=\"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-content\/uploads\/GCOMS-UK-bfg-pts-1Mar21-final.pdf\"><strong>Download fully referenced PDF<\/strong><\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In November 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a very large increase in UK military spending. <\/li><li>Total additional spending is approx. \u00a324bn over four years, i.e. an average of \u00a36bn per year (see table and graphs in appendices).<\/li><li>The core military budget in 2020-21 was \u00a341.2bn. 3 Accounting for inflation, the increase in annual spending averages about 10%. <\/li><li>This jump is the highest percentage increase in military spending since UK involvement in the Korean War 70 years ago.<\/li><li>The spending increase is all focused on the \u2018capital\u2019 part of the Ministry of Defence\u2019s budget, mainly on military equipment. <\/li><li>The main elements of the military equipment budget include: submarines and nuclear weapons (the largest); combat aircraft; warships; armoured vehicles; IT; and weapons.<\/li><li>Newer areas of spending include: armed drones; military artificial intelligence; cyber warfare; military space technologies; and directed energy weapons (e.g. lasers). <\/li><li>The spending increase is based on a premise that a highly militarised response to international security problems \u2013 based on global deployment of offensive weapons technologies \u2013 should remain at the heart of the UK foreign and security policy. We contest this view, and argue for alternative spending. <\/li><li>The core military budget does not include about \u00a36bn per year of additional spending which the UK reports to NATO. This includes military pensions and some peace-keeping activity. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-6a2ec9a6 gb-headline-text\">Comparisons with other budgets <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-4e59a0cf gb-headline-text\">International development\/ overseas aid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In November 2020, the UK government announced a huge reduction in spending on overseas aid. <\/li><li>The budget for overseas aid is determined with reference to an international target, i.e. 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI). The November announcement was that the UK would reduce its aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% GNI. <\/li><li>The actual monetary reduction from 2020-21 to 2021-22 is \u00a33.3bn (see table and graphs in appendices). This is on top of a reduction from the previous year due to a number of factors, including the shrinkage of the UK economy due to the COVID-19 crisis and the merger of the Dept for International Development with the Foreign Office. <\/li><li>No aid spending figures have yet been published for after 2022.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-d9315006 gb-headline-text\">Reducing UK carbon emissions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In November, the government announced \u2018The ten point plan for a green industrial revolution\u2019, with a budget of \u00a312bn. <\/li><li>On closer inspection, a maximum of only \u00a311bn is earmarked for spending in the next four years, averaging of \u00a32.8bn per year. <\/li><li>In December, the Committee of Climate Change (CCC) published a report which analysed current and future government spending to hit its reduction targets for carbon emissions.<\/li><li>The CCC estimated that government spending in this area for 2020-21 was approximately \u00a35bn. This included \u00a32bn devoted to the Green Homes Grant (GHG) scheme. <\/li><li>The latest evidence is that only \u00a30.1bn of the GHG will be spent in this financial year, meaning total spending is only \u00a33.1bn. <\/li><li>The CCC estimated that annual government spending needs to increase very rapidly to between \u00a39bn and \u00a312bn \u2013 and that other (non-budget) measures are also needed to help switch\/ stimulate the rest of the UK economy to spend at least \u00a340bn per year on reducing carbon emissions.<\/li><li>Note that other climate-related spending \u2013 e.g. overseas aid for climate projects, climate change adaptation projects \u2013 are not included in these figures.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-f56dd977 gb-headline-text\">Appendix 1 \u2013 Table of UK government spending changes relative to 2020-21 (cash terms)<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Spending Area<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>2021-22<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>2022-23<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>2023-24<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>2024-25<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Military<\/strong><\/td><td>4.8<\/td><td>6.0<\/td><td>6.2<\/td><td>6.4<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Oversees Aid<\/strong><\/td><td>-3.3<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><td>N\/A<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Carbon Reduction<\/strong><\/td><td>2.8<\/td><td>2.8<\/td><td>2.8<\/td><td>2.8<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This briefing note was prepared by Dr Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility. In November 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a very large increase in UK military spending. Total additional spending is approx. \u00a324bn over four years, i.e. an average of \u00a36bn per year (see table and graphs in appendices). The &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Briefing points in advance of the UK government budget announcement\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/briefing-points-in-advance-of-the-uk-government-budget-announcement\/#more-1984\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Briefing points in advance of the UK government budget announcement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-budget"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-content\/uploads\/rishi-sunak.jpg?fit=1620%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2336,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1984\/revisions\/2336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}