Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will hold discussions with his Commonwealth counterparts on the prospect of an annual joint King’s Birthday parade.

There are no plans to include other elements of the UK Armed Forces or Commonwealth participation in the annual King’s Birthday Parade.

The annual King’s Birthday Parade and the Trooping of the Colour is a parade and celebration that is unique to the Household Division – it does not include other elements of the British Army or the other Services. To include these, and potentially Commonwealth participation, would significantly change the historical and traditional aspects of this parade which has continued in essentially the same format for over a century.

Those Commonwealth countries that recognise His Majesty The King as their Head of State celebrate his official birthday in their own way. Apart from the annual King’s Birthday Parade and the Trooping of the Colour, the UK Armed Forces do not celebrate the Sovereign’s birthdays. However, alongside the rest of the nation, they have traditionally celebrated significant milestones in the Sovereign’s reign; the recent pageants for Her Late Majesty The Queen’s major anniversaries of her accession are examples which have included representatives of Commonwealth Armed Forces.