Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many trained military personnel were ready to deploy in a combat role in each branch of the armed forces in each of the last five years.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The below table represents the number of UK Armed Forces personnel with a Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) of Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) and Medically Limited Deployable (MLD), in a combat role, as at 1 July for each year between 2020 and 2024, by Service.
Date | Royal Navy (incl. Royal Marines) | British Army1 | Royal Air Force | ||||||
MFD | MLD | Total | MFD | MLD | Total | MFD | MLD | Total | |
01 July 2020 | 23,772 | 2,319 | 26,091 | 20,574 | 2,175 | 22,749 | 23,823 | 2,303 | 26,126 |
01 July 2021 | 24,379 | 2,397 | 26,776 | 21,488 | 2,274 | 23,762 | 23,975 | 2,405 | 26,380 |
01 July 2022 | 24,203 | 2,286 | 26,489 | 20,551 | 2,428 | 22,979 | 23,223 | 2,485 | 25,708 |
01 July 2023 | 23,717 | 2,227 | 25,944 | 19,489 | 2,219 | 21,708 | 22,509 | 2,477 | 24,986 |
01 July 2024 | 22,994 | 2,385 | 25,379 | 18,398 | 2,123 | 20,521 | 21,915 | 2,465 | 24,380 |
Source: Analysis (Health)
The new Government is determined to improve readiness and recruitment levels from those we inherited. Work to do so is underway and the MOD will be making announcements on action in due course.
Notes/caveats:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recruitment targets there were in each branch of the armed forces in each of the last five years; and how many people were recruited to each branch in the same period.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The information requested by the hon. Member can be found below.
Financial Year | Royal Navy | Army | Royal Air Force | |||
Target | Actual | Target | Actual | Target | Actual | |
2019-20 | 4,180 | 3,670 | 10,110 | 9,590 | 2,900 | 2,620 |
2020-21 | 4,400 | 4,060 | 9,420 | 9,330 | 2,490 | 2,210 |
2021-22 | 4,350 | 3,730 | 7,360 | 7,230 | 2,670 | 2,320 |
2022-23 | 3,830 | 2,950 | 8,830 | 6,080 | 2,370 | 1,930 |
2023-24 | 4,040 | 2,610 | 10,450 | 6,720 | 2,560 | 1,600 |
The new Government has made improving recruitment and readiness of our armed forces an early priority. The Secretary of State has already made announcements to improve recruitment and further announcements will be made by the Ministry of Defence in due course.
Notes:
Royal Navy
1. Full-Time Naval Service personnel (Royal Navy and Royal Marines), including Nursing Services, but excluding Full-Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel and reservists.
2. Untrained intake for Navy include Marines and comprises new entrants into Phase 1 training. Figures do not include transfers from another Service or include transfers from Other Rank to Officer.
Army
1. The figures are for the Regular Army only and therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service, Mobilised Reserves, Army Reserve and all other Reserves, but includes those personnel that have transferred from GURTAM to UKTAP.
2. Untrained intake for Army comprises new entrants into Phase 1 training. Figures do not include transfers from another Service. Figures also do not include transfers from Other Rank to Untrained Direct Entry Officer.
3. The Army Regular Other Rank Basic Training Starts (BTS) targets exclude re-joiners and personnel joining the Military Provost Guard Service and the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.
4. In 2019-20 the target was exceeded; however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent reduction in BT capacity, the number of BTS was impacted. Recruits were loaded to training, however, but were unable to start BT in year.
5. The Army reduced its recruitment targets in 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to measures under Future Soldier, which are reflected in the above figures. The Other Ranks target for 2020-21 was reported as 8,270 due to an administrative error in an earlier Parliamentary Question (UIN 7264) dated 8 January 2024 and has been corrected in the calculations for the above table.
6. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 for presentational purposes.
Royal Air Force
1. Intake to the Regular RAF includes both trained and untrained intake. The figures match the Service Personnel Statistics, Table 5A.
2. Recruitment and intake is likely to be affected by wider circumstances, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living.
3. Figures have been rounded to 10 for presentational purposes. Numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systemic bias.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether each of the armed forces has diversity targets.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Armed Forces do not have diversity targets. There are agreed Levels of Ambition for recruitment and representation of females and ethnic minority personnel.
In a competitive age, our advantage derives from the talent and skills of our people. We must attract, recruit, and retain the best people drawn from the broadest diversity of thought, skills and background – it is mission critical to our operational effectiveness and to ensuring we continue to meet the threats we face and safeguard the security, stability and prosperity of our nation.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he plans to take to support homeless military veterans in Great Yarmouth constituency.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
This is a Government of service that will always stand up for those who serve our country. I am working across Government to ensure veterans across the UK have access to the support they need on housing, as well as health, employment and other areas.
The Government will develop a new cross-Government strategy, working with Mayors and Councils across the country, to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness. The Ministry of Defence will support that work to take a long term approach and to tackle the root causes of homelessness.
Veterans in need of housing support can contact Op FORTITUDE, a single referral pathway to connect veterans with help and support at this link: https://www.gov.uk/support-for-veterans/op-fortitude.
This system provides housing guidance and assistance to veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness across the UK. As of October 2024, over 2,600 referrals have been made and over 700 veterans have been supported into housing.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many positions in his Department included (a) diversity, (b) inclusion, (c) equity and (d) equality in their job title in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of the salaries of each such job was in each of those years.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Ministry of Defence does not routinely collate information on specific words and collating this information would come at a disproportionate cost.
Information on spending and staffing can be found in the Department's annual report and accounts: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024