Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Foreign Secretary’s Mansion House speech on 6 May, whether they will conduct a review of defence spending; and whether they will commit to spending more than the minimum NATO endorsed proportion of GDP on defence.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Government has committed to meet the NATO pledge to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence every year of this Parliament.
Future defence spending will be agreed at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 12 February (HL5176), what are the figures for the Medical Deployability Standard categories for (1) the army, (2) the Royal Navy, and (3) the Royal Air Force.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
There are three Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) categories for the Armed Forces.
Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) personnel are those medically fit for duty with no employment limitations.
Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) personnel are medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. MLD personnel may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements.
Medically Not Deployable (MND) personnel are medically fit for duty with major employment limitations. MND personnel are not currently deployable on Operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. MND status, as with other MDS categories, is often only temporary due to injury or illness, and may change following medical review.
The table below provides the number and percentage of UK Regular Armed Forces personnel by permanent and temporary MDS category, by Service, as at 1 January 2018.
| All Services | Naval Service | Army | RAF | ||||
No | % | No | % | No | % | No | % | |
All Personnel | 137,263 |
| 29,264 |
| 77,467 |
| 30,532 |
|
Medically Fully Deployable | 110,154 | 80.3% | 24,458 | 83.6% | 60,396 | 78.0% | 25,300 | 82.9% |
Medically Limited Deployable | 13,967 | 10.2% | 2,071 | 7.1% | 9,972 | 12.9% | 1,924 | 6.3% |
Temporary | 4,329 | 3.2% | 522 | 1.8% | 3,036 | 3.9% | 771 | 2.5% |
Permanent | 9,522 | 6.9% | 1,506 | 5.1% | 6,902 | 8.9% | 1,114 | 3.6% |
Medically Not Deployable | 13,104 | 9.5% | 2,717 | 9.3% | 7,082 | 9.1% | 3,305 | 10.8% |
Temporary | 10,284 | 7.5% | 2,189 | 7.5% | 5,324 | 6.9% | 2,771 | 9.1% |
Permanent | 2,720 | 2.0% | 505 | 1.7% | 1,733 | 2.2% | 482 | 1.6% |
Naval Service includes Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Please note that some of the total figures may be greater than the sum of their parts. This is because data on the temporary or permanent Medical Deployability Standard status of some personnel was not available.
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many servicemen and servicewomen are currently unable to deploy on combat operations because they cannot meet the required medical standard.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
There are three Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) categories for the Armed Forces.
Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) personnel are those medically fit for duty with no employment limitations.
Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) personnel are medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. MLD personnel may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements.
Medically Not Deployable (MND) personnel are medically fit for duty with major employment limitations. MND personnel are not currently deployable on Operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. MND status, as with other MDS categories, is often only temporary due to injury or illness, and may change following medical review.
As at 1 October 2017, there were 137,280 full-time trained UK Armed Forces personnel, of whom 110,036 (80.2%) were MFD.
13,989* (10.2%) were MLD, of whom 4,370 (31.2%) were MLD Temporary.
13,223* (9.6%) were MND, of whom 10,329 (78.1%) were MND Temporary.
*subject to regrading following medical review
Asked by: Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the UK has strategic equivalents to the United States National Security Strategy and the United States National Defence Strategy; and, if so, what they are.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Government's National Security Strategy (NSS) is the strategic equivalent to the United States National Security Strategy. The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) is the strategic equivalent to the United States National Defense Strategy, though it is not limited in scope to Defence matters as is the case in the USA.