Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel are currently held at readiness for UK resilience tasks.

As of the 23 April 2025, Defence holds c. 1,600 personnel at readiness for operations designed to support UK resilience. The tasks they are attributed to are wide ranging, from support in the instance of flooding (provided by the UK Standby Battalions) to the provision of fuel tanker drivers in the instance of a national shortage (Op ESCALIN).

Of these 1,600 personnel, 900 are held at extremely high readiness within the UK Standby Battalions for domestic resilience tasks. This responsibility rotates through units and, as of 23 April 2025, is held by personnel from across the Army including the infantry, cavalry, Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

We take resilience tasks to mean operations designed to provide assistance to the civil authorities where there is either a capacity or skillset shortfall, excluding the provision of additional security in the instance of a significant terrorist attack.