Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many armed forces personnel have received a (1) forced, and (2) voluntary, redundancy package in each year from 2016 to 2021.

There has not been a programme of ‘forced’ or compulsory redundancy since the UK Armed Forces redundancy programme of 2011-15. The redundancies in all four tranches of that programme were compulsory and the vast majority of Service personnel who were made redundant through it had left Service by March 2016. Another eight personnel left their Service on redundancy terms between April 2016 and December 2017.

A small number, under ten, have been made redundant since December 2017. These were in respect of personnel whose posts or organisations had been restructured and meant as a result of their terms and conditions of service, and after exhausting all other options, that compensatory redundancy was the only alternative.