Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications the board of the Armed Forces' Pay Review Body received during its last intake.

Membership of the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body (AFPRB) is by Ministerial appointment. Applicants for public appointments go through a strict recruitment process which adheres to Cabinet Office policy and requirements set by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Ministers are required to approve the recruitment programme, job advert and the composition of the Advisory Assessment Panel before the campaign begins. For AFPRB appointments the advisory panel consists of senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, Her Majesty’s Treasury, the Office of Manpower Economics as well as an independent member and, when appropriate, the Chair of the AFPRB. The role of the panel is to provide objective advice on appointable candidates who meet the published criteria for the job from which Ministers can select.

During the last recruitment, which was advertised in August 2016, 37 applications were received.

Currently the AFPRB consists of eight members, of which three are women. None are from a declared black or ethnic minority background or declared disabled. Information on whether members are from a lower socio-economic background is not requested and is therefore not held.