Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

This article is about the department established in 1964. For the department from 1947 to 1964, see Ministry of Defence (1947–1964). For its headquarters, see Ministry of Defence Main Building.

Ministry of Defence
Logo

MoD Main Building, Westminster
Department overview
Formed1 April 1964 (as modern department)
JurisdictionGovernment of the United Kingdom
HeadquartersMain Building, Whitehall, Westminster, London
51°30′14″N 0°07′30″W / 51.5040°N 0.1249°W / 51.5040; -0.1249
Employees
  • 60,000 (FTE) civilian staff (April 2021)[1]
  • 198,940 military personnel[2]
Annual budget£55 billion; FY 2021[3]
Secretary of State responsible
Department executives
Child agencies
Websitegov.uk/mod Edit this at Wikidata

The Ministry of Defence (MOD or MoD) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for implementing the defence policy set by the government and serves as the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.

The MOD states that its principal objectives are to defend the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its interests and to strengthen international peace and stability.[4] The MOD also manages day-to-day running of the armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement.

The expenditure, administration and policy of the MOD are scrutinised by the Defence Select Committee,[5] except for Defence Intelligence which instead falls under the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.[6]

  1. ^ "MOD biannual civilian personnel report: 2021". Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  2. ^ "UK Armed Forces Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics 1 October 2021". Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Budget 2020". HM Treasury. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  4. ^ "The Defence Vision, Ministry of Defence website". Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Defence Committee". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021. The Defence Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Ministry of Defence and its associated public bodies.
  6. ^ "Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament". gov.uk. Retrieved 29 December 2021. The ISC oversees the policies, expenditure, administration and operations of MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Defence Intelligence, the Joint Intelligence Organisation, the National Security Secretariat (NSS) and Homeland Security Group.