Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel in the (a) Army, (b) RAF and (c) Royal Navy are trained at proficiency level (i) 1, (ii) 2, (iii) 3, (iv) 4 and (v) 5 in (A) Mandarin Chinese, (B) Japanese and (C) Korean.

There are approximately 145 personnel across all three services that are trained in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese or Korean. It is not possible to provide a detailed breakdown for these languages because of the strategic and operational sensitivities surrounding them.

The Ministry of Defence's (MOD) language requirements for intelligence or other purposes are met from a Departmental pool of Armed Forces and civilian personnel (and from contractors when needed). Cultural and language skills are a key operational enabler; therefore the Department reviews its future requirements for linguists regularly and trains its personnel accordingly.