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Louise Sandher-Jones corrected a written answer on Armed Forces: Pay

19 March 2026 · Commons written answer · Ministry of Defence

James Cartlidge (Conservative, South Suffolk) asked written question 116946 on 2 March 2026. Louise Sandher-Jones answered on 10 March 2026 for the Ministry of Defence, and Louise Sandher-Jones corrected the answer on 19 March 2026. The correction replaced 12 figures (1,018, 1,132, 1,256, 1,401, 1,467, 1,552) with 12 figures (4,290, 4,916, 44,439, 5,164, 5,330, 5,748). Altogether 200 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many individuals have received an operational tour bonus in each of the ten previous financial years.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

OriginalCorrected
The following table shows the distinct number of Service personnel who received operational tour bonuses as paid under ‘operational allowance’ and ‘retro operational allowance’ in the last ten financial years.
Financial Year
| Operational Allowance
| Retro Operational Allowance
| Grand Total
2015-16
| 1,867
| 1,774
| 3,177
2016-17
| 2,381
| 2,268
| 4,071
2017-18
| 3,390
| 3,808
| 5,976
2018-19
| 3,820
| 4,209
| 6,690
2019-20
| 4,584
| 3,935
| 7,022
2020-21
| 2,490
| 3,920
| 5,333
2021-22
| 3,082
| 3,179
| 5,283
2022-23
 | 1,873
| 1,467
| 3,014
2023-24
 | 1,132
| 1,256
| 2,107
2024-25
| 1,401
| 1,552
| 2,524
2025 – 3 March 2026
| 2,944
| 1,018
| 3,593
Total
| 23,384
| 22,116
| 35,294
Totals represent unique individuals and may therefore differ from the sum of individual allowance counts.
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The total cost of Operational Allowance paid to Service Personnel in each Financial Year since 2015-16, and the numbers in receipt, are set out below:
Financial Year
| Numbers in receipt of Op Allowance
| Total Op Allowance
2015-16
| 4,290
| £10,709,745.54
2016-17
| 5,748
| £14,668,691.79
2017-18
| 6,972
| £21,038,734.63
2018-19
| 7,653
| £24,554,593.59
2019-20
| 7,886
| £26,621,504.81
2020-21
| 6,140
| £18,587,048.82
2021-22
| 6,399
| £16,596,044.66
2022-23
| 5,164
| £13,673,498.62
2023-24
| 4,916
| £13,663,602.68
2024-25
| 5,330
| £13,091,473.38
2025-26 to date
| 6,625
| £12,896,081.72
Total
| 44,439
| £186,101,020.24

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

More on Louise Sandher-Jones.

Receipt

Read fromhttps://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1886479?expandMember=true
Date read16 October 2026
SHA-2564c94a5f7a6dcf706f289d9734f93359327c22c6e3c833d7560c754d703cabef2