Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what data his Department holds on the number of excess hours worked by service personnel in each of the last five calendar years, broken down by service.

Regular members of the Armed Forces do not serve a set number of conditioned hours per week. As such, they are not paid overtime so the requested excess hours data is not held as it might otherwise be for other workforces. Instead, X-Factor is paid, currently at 14.5%, as a pensionable addition to pay to recognise the relative disadvantages of conditions of Service experienced by members of the Armed Forces compared to those in the civilian sector, including hours of work.

Since 2014, MOD has undertaken and published the results of its annual Armed Forces Continuous Working Patterns Survey. This data is derived from a seven day diary completed by a sample of trained, UK regular personnel who record the number of hours spent at work, on call, on breaks and off duty. These annual reports can be accessed online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/armed-forces-continuous-working-patterns-survey-index