Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Written Ministerial Statement of 1 April 2025 on Defence Reform, HCWS 573, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of his proposed Departmental reforms on the number of civil servants employed by his Department.

We are undertaking the biggest UK defence reforms for more than 50 years, including building an Armed Forces and Defence Civil Service workforce which will be more skilled, agile and which better exploits technology.

This means tackling bureaucracy and streamlining processes to increase productivity.

This Government inherited a crisis in Armed Forces recruitment and retention and Ministers are determined to stop the long term decline in troop numbers.