Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2025 to Question 58934 on Armed Forces: Vacancies, what the ranks of the unfilled posts are; and how long they have been unfilled.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK has one of the highest post fill rates in NATO. As of 1 April 2025, the UK’s post allocation was 1,053, of which 82 were unfilled. While 8% of our posts were gapped in April 2025, this was predominantly for a period of less than 10 months. The majority of gaps were at OF-3, OF-4, and OR-6 level, which corresponds to the most in demand ranks of the personnel we provide. The full data for this period is as follows:
Ranks (and corresponding Army rank) | Number of gaps per rank |
OF-2 (Captain) | 8 |
OF-3 (Major) | 15 |
OF-4 (Lieutenant Col) | 15 |
OF-5 (Colonel) | 1 |
OR-2 (Private) | 1 |
OR-3 (Lance Corporal) | 2 |
OR-4 (Corporal) | 10 |
OR-6 (Sergeant) | 17 |
OR-7 (Staff Sergeant) | 8 |
OR-8 (Warrant Officer Class 2) | 2 |
OR-9 (Warrant Officer Class 1) | 1 |
Gapped period |
|
0-10 months | 35 |
11-20 months | 10 |
20-30 months | 4 |
31-40 months | 5 |
41-50 months | 8 |
50-60 months | 3 |
60+ months | 15 |
| 80 |
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP vacancies there were in GP practices' in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB as of 1 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data requested is not held centrally. The Government is committed to increasing the general practice workforce. By cutting red tape and investing more into the National Health Service, we have recruited over 1,700 general practitioners into general practice to deliver more appointments since October.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers who have previously reached a another safe country before arriving in the UK have had their applications (a) approved and (b) rejected in each year since 2015.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Available data on third country refusals, where the claimant is believed to have reached a safe third country prior to claiming in the UK, is published in table Asy_D02 of the asylum detailed datasets. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to the year ending March 2025.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many military posts allocated for British Armed Forces personnel within NATO remain unfilled as of 1 April 2025.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK is one of the largest contributors of personnel to NATO, underlining our commitment to deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area, with personnel deployed in over twenty-one countries.
The UK consistently has one of the highest post fill rates in NATO. As of 1 April 2025, the UK’s post allocation was 1,053, of which 8% were unfilled. This is due to new long-lead posts recently being included in data, as well as normal churn.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the expected change in cost for Defence Nuclear Enterprise until 2033.
Answered by Maria Eagle
As stated in an update to the Public Accounts Committee in December 2023, the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) forecast an equipment plan spend of £117.8 billion over the period 2023-33. Over the same period to 2033, the current forecast for DNE equipment plan spend has increased by about £10 billion.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of serving personnel in the (a) Navy, (b) Army and (c) RAF were recruited from countries outside the UK in each year since 2015; and from which countries.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The attached tables provide the intake into the Regular Armed Forces by Service and the Brigade of Gurkhas by nationality, and as percentage of overall intake in each year between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2024. Commonwealth citizens have been grouped together as numbers from individual Commonwealth countries can be very small.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Reserve Service Day budget for (a) the army, (b) maritime and (c) the RAF will be subject to in year savings measures for the financial year 2025-26.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Reserves enable our Armed Forces to meet the threats we face at home and overseas, by providing the scale, skills, agility and connection to society needed, in a cost-effective way. As the Minister for Veterans and People, I have commissioned an internal review in Defence to ensure that we are making the most of the unique contribution our Reserve Forces offer. The review will examine the Reserves landscape and will include some aspects of their terms and conditions of Service.
There is no baseline allocation of Reserve Service Days (RSD) for Army Reservists; individual Army Reserve RSD consumption varies between zero and 120 days, with an average of around 30 days. For the Maritime Reserve, the minimum annual training commitment is generally 24 RSD, split between the delivery of operational capability output and support activity. For Royal Air Force Reserve, the minimum annual RSD is 27 days, though the average is 30 days.
Funds are allocated appropriately to deliver strategic objectives. In advance of the conclusions of the Strategic Defence Review and the review I have commissioned it would be inappropriate to anticipate future budgetary allocations.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total Reserve Service Day Budget is for the (a) Army, (b) Maritime and (c) Air Force in financial year 2025-26.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Reserves enable our Armed Forces to meet the threats we face at home and overseas, by providing the scale, skills, agility and connection to society needed, in a cost-effective way. As the Minister for Veterans and People, I have commissioned an internal review in Defence to ensure that we are making the most of the unique contribution our Reserve Forces offer. The review will examine the Reserves landscape and will include some aspects of their terms and conditions of Service.
There is no baseline allocation of Reserve Service Days (RSD) for Army Reservists; individual Army Reserve RSD consumption varies between zero and 120 days, with an average of around 30 days. For the Maritime Reserve, the minimum annual training commitment is generally 24 RSD, split between the delivery of operational capability output and support activity. For Royal Air Force Reserve, the minimum annual RSD is 27 days, though the average is 30 days.
Funds are allocated appropriately to deliver strategic objectives. In advance of the conclusions of the Strategic Defence Review and the review I have commissioned it would be inappropriate to anticipate future budgetary allocations.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the baseline allocation of reserve services days will be for reservists in the (a) Army Reserve, (b) Maritime Reserve and (c) RAF Reserve in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Reserves enable our Armed Forces to meet the threats we face at home and overseas, by providing the scale, skills, agility and connection to society needed, in a cost-effective way. As the Minister for Veterans and People, I have commissioned an internal review in Defence to ensure that we are making the most of the unique contribution our Reserve Forces offer. The review will examine the Reserves landscape and will include some aspects of their terms and conditions of Service.
There is no baseline allocation of Reserve Service Days (RSD) for Army Reservists; individual Army Reserve RSD consumption varies between zero and 120 days, with an average of around 30 days. For the Maritime Reserve, the minimum annual training commitment is generally 24 RSD, split between the delivery of operational capability output and support activity. For Royal Air Force Reserve, the minimum annual RSD is 27 days, though the average is 30 days.
Funds are allocated appropriately to deliver strategic objectives. In advance of the conclusions of the Strategic Defence Review and the review I have commissioned it would be inappropriate to anticipate future budgetary allocations.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 37538 on Army: Recruitment, if he will provide numbers by category for each year listed.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
It is taking time to interrogate the data and therefore it has not been possible to provide the answer in the time available. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as practical and will place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.