Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) officers and (b) ratings were employed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Below are the requested figures of RFA personnel from 2010, broken down into Total Number, Officer and Rating figures.
Table 1. Royal Fleet Auxiliary Total Strength by Officer and Rating, as at 1 January 2010 to 1 January 2024
Date | Total | Officers | Ratings |
01 / 01 / 2010 | 2315 | 813 | 1502 |
01 / 01 / 2011 | 2314 | 787 | 1527 |
01 / 01 / 2012 | 1959 | 697 | 1262 |
01 / 01 / 2013 | 1887 | 667 | 1220 |
01 / 01 / 2014 | 1821 | 640 | 1181 |
01 / 01 / 2015 | 1850 | 662 | 1188 |
01 / 01 / 2016 | 1923 | 731 | 1192 |
01 / 01 / 2017 | 1938 | 726 | 1212 |
01 / 01 / 2018 | 1916 | 711 | 1205 |
01 / 01 / 2019 | 1887 | 685 | 1202 |
01 / 01 / 2020 | 1826 | 646 | 1180 |
01 / 01 / 2021 | 1828 | 657 | 1171 |
01 / 01 / 2022 | 1782 | 656 | 1126 |
01 / 01 / 2023 | 1736 | 637 | 1099 |
01 / 01 / 2024 | 1669 | 623 | 1046 |
Figures pre-2015 have been included, but this legacy data was obtained through a different data source and via a different system to the one currently used by Navy Analysis. As such, caution should be exercised when comparing figures from these respective periods as they may not be directly comparable.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average amount of time is that an (a) officer and (b) rating serves in the Royal Navy.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Making the Royal Navy (RN) an attractive and rewarding employer remains of paramount importance. Promoting retention efforts to extend the length of service of our sailors enables the RN to retain its skilled personnel, whose experience, and tradecraft are essential to the organisation.
The table below provides the average length of service on exit by trained RN Personnel (including Royal Marines) between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2023.
Rank | Mean | Median |
Rating | 12 years 2 months | 8 years 7 months |
Officer | 21 years 0 months | 20 years 3 months |
Average length of service has been calculated by the length of current service, against the difference between the sailor’s joining and exit dates.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the delivery of the Future Commando Force.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Commando Forces are deployed globally today, delivering disproportionate impact for a formation of their size, in the High North, Eastern Mediterranean and India-Asia Pacific regions as well as supporting rapid operational feedback and validating lessons from Ukraine.
The Department continually assesses resourcing of all operational capabilities. The Commando Force has delivered significant capability improvements at pace which have already been deployed on operations, with spiral development of key capabilities to retain their operational advantage going forward.
The Commando Force Programme is delivering a transformational change to amphibious operations through two investment increments over the next ten-years that offer political choice at competition, crisis and conflict levels.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the (a) lethal and (b) non lethal military aid donated to Ukraine since February 2022.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK's support to Ukraine has been and will remain steadfast and we have just announced our largest ever military aid package, which will be delivered over the next few months.
Since February 2022, we have delivered the following key capabilities. For operational security reasons we are unable to publish the full extent of the information requested. The announcement made by the Prime Minister on Tuesday 23 April is additional to the list below.
· 1,800 air defence missiles
· Over 4,000 drones including:
· Long range attack drones
· Strategic Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS)
· Storm Shadow cruise missiles
· Squadron of 14 Challenger 2 Tanks with thousands of rounds of ammunition, plus armoured recovery and repair vehicles.
· 50 AS90 self-propelled 155mm guns hundreds of armoured and protected vehicles.
· 400,000 rounds of artillery ammunition
· 6 Stormer vehicles fitted with Starstreak launchers
· Thousands of surface-to-air missiles including HMV Starstreak, LMM Martlet, ASRAAM, AMRAAM and others.
· More than 10,000 anti-tank weapons (including over 5,000 Next Generation Light Anti-Tank [NLAW] missiles, Javelin, Brimstone and others)
· Nearly 6 million rounds of small arms ammunition, 2,600 anti-structure munitions and 4.5 tonnes of plastic explosive
· More than a hundred anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled artillery.
· Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS)
· 6 stormer air defence vehicles, using HVM Starstreak missiles.
· Counter-battery radar systems
· Communications equipment
· Electronic warfare equipment
· Medical equipment
· 3 Sea King helicopters
· 140 logisitics vehicles
· 1,000 VALLON metal detectors and 100 bomb de-arming kits
· 300 Armoured and protected mobility vehicles
· Cold weather equipment
· Body armour and helmets
· Electricity Generators
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department last met (i) the Nautilus and (ii) RMT Unions.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I can confirm that there have been no confirmed Ministerial meetings with these organisations.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much and what proportion of his Department's budget for research and development has not been allocated.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
All R&D funding is allocated to Top Level Budgets (TLBs) as part of the annual budget cycle. At the start of this financial year, 25% of R&D spending is currently committed, with the remainder uncommitted to enable flexibility and for budget holders to invest strategically in key programmes. This is consistent with the approach taken over previous three years, where all R&D funding has been committed by the end of each financial year.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has taken delivery of the first newly UK-built NLAW missiles.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Following significant Granting in Kind of Next generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon (NLAW) missiles to Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence placed a contract for replenishment in December 2022. The initial delivery of replenishment missiles into UK stock was successfully achieved in July 2023, with the remaining contracted quantities being delivered in multiple batches between now and December 2026.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether it remains his Department's policy to build a second Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance vessel in the UK.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Second Multi-role Ocean Surveillance Vessel is still in the concept phase. A programme and procurement strategy will be established once this has been completed.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many sabotage incidents have taken place at UK defence industrial sites in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
It has been the long-standing policy of the current and previous Governments that we do not comment on security incidents.
The Ministry of Defence takes the security of our sites and UK defence industrial sites extremely seriously. We have robust measures in place to assure the integrity of these arrangements. When any type of security incident is raised, it is reviewed by security personnel and subjected to an initial security risk assessment, with further action taken on a proportionate basis.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many appeals of an initial eligibility decision under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy have been made; and how many and what proportion of these appeals were successful.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Published policy for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) indicates that every principal applicant to the scheme is entitled to request a review within 90 days of receipt of an initial eligibility decision. Applicants should seek a review if new or further information which supports their ARAP application has become available since the initial eligibility decision.
As of 19 April 2024, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has received over 96,000 unique ARAP applications and a total of 6,268 requests for a review of an initial eligibility decision. 21 initial decisions have been overturned.