Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of service personnel failed their annual fitness test in each year since 2013.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The requested information is provided in the following tables:
Royal Navy
Year Awarded | Failed | Fail rate |
2015 | 982 | 4% |
2016 | 1,439 | 5% |
2017 | 1,504 | 5% |
2018 | 1,682 | 6% |
2019 | 1,450 | 5% |
2020 | 1,523 | 7% |
2021 | 1,412 | 7% |
2022 | 1,888 | 8% |
2023 | 1,960 | 9% |
2024 | 1,083 | 5% |
Table Notes:
Army
Year Awarded | Failed | Fail rate |
2013 | 671 | 2% |
2014 | 758 | 2% |
2015 | 1,172 | 3% |
2016 | 1,227 | 3% |
2017 | 1,211 | 3% |
2018 | 1,275 | 3% |
2019 | 1,269 | 4% |
2020 | 928 | 3% |
2021 | 1,070 | 3% |
2022 | 1,218 | 3% |
2023 | 1,170 | 3% |
2024 | 710 | 2% |
Table Notes:
Royal Air Force
Year Awarded | Failed | Fail rate |
2016 | 854 | 3.8% |
2017 | 1,360 | 5.5% |
2018 | 1,624 | 6.5% |
2019 | 1,488 | 6% |
2020 | 900 | 6.9% |
2021 | 2,266 | 9% |
2022 | 2,199 | 8.7% |
2023 | 1,687 | 6.9% |
2024 | 1,320 | 6.7% |
Table Notes:
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many annual fitness tests were cancelled due to the safe temperature being exceeded (a) one (b) two and (c) three hours before the start time in each year since 2013.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Ministry of Defence does not hold any information of annual fitness tests being cancelled due to the safe temperature being exceeded because this information is not recorded.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many service personnel died within 24 hours of completing their annual fitness test in each year since 2013.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Since 2013, two Army personnel have sadly died whilst undertaking the combat fitness test element of the annual fitness test. No other personnel have died within 24 hours of completing their annual fitness test during this period.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's response to the Coroner report on the death of Corporal Joshua Hoole, dated 27 January 2020, when the common tri-service suite of reporting and investigation forms was completed; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the new processes.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has overhauled safety policy beginning in 2020 to provide clear direction that all suspected or confirmed heat illness cases must be reported, and to improve the quality of reporting safety occurrences. The MOD is now moving to a single safety occurrence reporting system known as MySafety.
Individual Defence organisations’ safety occurrence reporting procedures instructs their personnel on ‘how’ to report safety occurrences and the Commanders Guide to Joint Service Publication (JSP) 375 Chapter 41 (Heat Illness Prevention) specifies ‘what’ minimum data is required for reporting heat illness cases, for example: the time, location, Wet Bulb Globe Thermometer reading, Met Office weather forecast, type of activity being undertaken, and a description of the illness or injury.
The MOD has also developed and implemented heat illness prevention training that must be completed by all military personnel at the earliest opportunity (for example in Phase 1 training for new entrants) to reinforce the heat illness prevention policy, including reporting, that is set out in JSP 375 Chapter 41.
While work was undertaken in 2020 to move to a more common set of reporting and investigation forms, several individual Defence organisations continue to use separate reporting systems to report incidents of suspected or confirmed heat illness including exertional heat illness. The Army and UK Strat Com have already adopted MySafety as a unified reporting system. The remaining Front Line Commands are expected to follow suit by April 2025. MySafety has already seen an increase in reporting numbers and quality, but the full benefits will not be realised until Full Operating Capability is reached in October 2025.