Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) Army, (b) RAF and (c) Navy deployments which were extended before the scheduled end of the tour of duty in each year from 2015 to 2018; and if he will make a statement.

To meet evolving and emergent operational requirements:

The Royal Navy has retained a vessel beyond the planned deployment period on five occasions from 2015 to 2018. One deployment was extended in 2015, three were extended in 2016-2017 and one in 2018. We do not comment on submarine operations for security reasons.

The Army - approximately 120 personnel were extended in Afghanistan in summer 2018 from four months to eight months to facilitate the Kabul Security Force uplift. The personnel had a two week period of Rest and Recuperation at home within the eight months.

In South Sudan, personnel extended for 21 days to ensure a seamless handover of the military run hospital to the Vietnamese in Bentiu.

A number of personnel were also retained for up to 19 days beyond their end of tour date in South Sudan due to visa issues for the incoming relief.

Royal Air Force - Operational deployments are conducted in a variety of ways by the Royal Air Force and extensions to operational deployments are not recorded.

The movement of personnel is tracked on an individual level using the Joint Personnel Administration system. This is limited to departure/arrival dates only which do not indicate if an extension or reduction in deployment duration has occurred. Therefore the data above reflects delays to formed unit's deployment only.