MOD trade, industry and contracts: 2026

This bulletin provides figures on the composition and scope of the department's expenditure, information on the impact of defence spending on the wider economy, and compares the MOD's spending to that of other departments and other countries.

Section removal

The 2026 edition of the Trade, Industry and Contracts bulletin will permanently exclude the section on Major Equipment Projects when published. The underlying data on equipment spending plans had historically been included within the Project Performance Summary Table of the Defence Equipment Plan. However, this data has not been produced since 2024 and the section will now be removed since comparable figures remain unavailable. Note that broadly similar information is provided by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) in the Major Projects Annual Report.

From 2026, details on defence export orders will be contained solely in the separate UK Defence Export Statistics. Before 2026 this statistical release was published by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). However, after a Machinery of Government change effective 31 July 2025, responsibility for defence exports promotion moved from DBT to the MOD. Since MOD now takes full ownership for the production of these statistics, figures will be released in UK Defence Export Statistics only so as to avoid duplication of reporting as well as improve timeliness. The next edition of the export statistics is expected late 2026. Historic data in this time series can still be found in MOD Trade, Industry and Contracts 2025.

Future revisions

A planned revision of 2026's Trade, Industry and Contracts bulletin is expected by early 2027. In this revision, the competition and SME status of newly placed contracts in 2025/26 will be reassessed. This is to account for the delayed reporting of new contracts which has historically resulted in a 1% adjustment to the number of contracts reported.

Should you have any comments regarding any of these changes or proposed revisions then please email [email protected].