Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions the Harmony guidelines have been broken for deployments for the (a) Army, (b) Navy, (c) RAF and (d) Royal Marines in each quarter since 2010.

The Ministry of Defence publishes Quarterly Statistics on Separated Service (the proportion of personnel breaching harmony guidelines).

A breach of individual harmony guidelines occurs when Service personnel experience separated service for longer than the period outlined in individual harmony guidelines, which are based on the structures and organisation of that Service. The guidelines are measured over a 36 month period and the limits are 660 days away for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines; 498 days for the Army; and 468 days away for the RAF.

Top level statistics on Separated Service, by Service, from 1 April 2011 to 1 April 2018, can be found at Excel Table 10 of the UK Armed Forces Monthly Service Personnel Statistics, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2018.

The Royal Marines figures are included in those for the Royal Navy. Harmony guidelines before 1 April 2014 were measured over different periods.