Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many commonwealth veterans have been serving in the armed forces for four years or more.

As at 1 July 2023, there were 2,580 trained regulars in the Armed Forces who had served four or more years and whose nationality was recorded as being a commonwealth country.

The table below shows the outflow over the last five years of trained regulars in the Armed Forces who served for four or more years, and whose nationality was recorded as being a commonwealth country:

Notes

• Figures have been provided by Analysis (Tri-service).
• UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non-Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel.
• Nationality is as recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system.
• Figures in the table have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards.
• Outflow is derived by month-on-month comparisons of strength. These figures include outflow to specific populations.
• Length of service (LOS) has been calculated using entry date extracted from Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) and is calculated as full years of service completed on outflow.