Armed Forces

(asked on 16th December 2025) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of whether current force levels across the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are sufficient to meet assessed threats.


Answered by
Al Carns Portrait
Al Carns
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
This question was answered on 24th December 2025

Our Armed Forces are ready to deter, fight and win - today, tomorrow and together with our allies.

Since elected, this Government has been committed to strengthening our Armed Forces. Through the Strategic Defence Review, we have outlined plans to increase the total number of Regular personnel, when funding allows. Additionally, we have embraced a whole-of-society approach to deterrence and defence, reinforcing our collective resilience, and are committed to increasing the number of Active Reserves by 20%, bolstering surge capacity and showcasing the UK's readiness to defend itself.

We do not disclose Force levels, but they remain under constant review. However, we do routinely publish our UK Service personnel statistics on strengths, requirements, intake, applications and outflow, by Service available at the link provided below:

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2025

Reticulating Splines