More than £25m of taxpayers’ money was written off by the Ministry of Defence over the past year after botched equipment deliveries, cancelled contracts, administrative errors and unused hotel rooms, according to figures obtained under freedom of information laws.
The scale of the so-called “fruitless” payments was more than double the annual average of £11m recorded between 2020 and 2024, and almost three times the £9m lost across the entire period from 2016 to 2019.
The figures emerge as the armed forces face increasingly severe pressure on their budgets, with military training and other activities being curtailed to contain costs.
Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary since July, pledged on taking office to ensure that “every penny is spent wisely” at the Ministry of Defence, saying the commitment reflected his approach as health secretary.
The largest individual loss uncovered in the data was £5.4m spent on “in-service support costs” for an unnamed MoD asset whose capability was subsequently discontinued.
A further £5m was lost after the cancellation of a contract to transport the minehunter HMS Bangor from Bahrain to Britain on a heavy-lift vessel. The MoD said the contract was cancelled “for operational reasons”.
HMS Bangor was badly damaged in a collision with HMS Chiddingfold in January 2024. An MoD source said the costs had been unavoidable after deteriorating security in the region forced a pause in military activity.
The department also paid £4.4m to a contractor after delays to training by the Submarine Delivery Agency caused by government equipment and facilities being unavailable.
In another case, £1m was lost on equipment purchased from an overseas supplier after foreign authorities seized the goods before they could reach Britain.
Administrative failures accounted for more than £2m in fines and interest charges imposed by HM Revenue & Customs. The costs stemmed from late or unpaid tax and National Insurance contributions, alongside invoices that had been incorrectly categorised.
Officials also failed to recover hundreds of thousands of pounds in VAT.
In a further example of spending that generated no benefit, the department paid about £100,000 for hotel accommodation for a conference that defence personnel ultimately did not attend.
The disclosures come against a backdrop of growing pressure on the armed forces to reduce spending. In September, the army was ordered to halt major training exercises involving tanks and helicopters in an effort to save at least £30m.
Dave Doogan, the SNP’s Westminster leader, accused the government of allowing waste to persist while military capabilities were being squeezed.
“The armed forces have been hollowed out all the while Whitehall is throwing taxpayer money up the wall,” he told the Times.
“Over £25m of our money has been blasted on payments that have delivered absolutely nothing – this is very serious and requires proper explanation.”
Mr Doogan added: “At a time when Andy Burnham is set to inflict further tax hikes on already hard-pressed household budgets, he must get a grip on out-of-control Westminster waste.”
The MoD defines “fruitless” payments as expenditure where the department receives nothing useful in return and either should not have incurred the liability or could have avoided it.
The department defended the overall level of spending, arguing that the losses represented only a small proportion of its budget.
“We are delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War, investing £298bn over the next four years,” the MoD said.
“These figures represent a very small proportion of the defence budget. However, we are clear that every pound of taxpayers’ money must be spent wisely to deliver the maximum possible impact for our armed forces.”
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