Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many trained military personnel were ready to deploy in a combat role in each branch of the armed forces in each of the last five years.

The below table represents the number of UK Armed Forces personnel with a Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) of Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) and Medically Limited Deployable (MLD), in a combat role, as at 1 July for each year between 2020 and 2024, by Service.

Source: Analysis (Health)

The new Government is determined to improve readiness and recruitment levels from those we inherited. Work to do so is underway and the MOD will be making announcements on action in due course.

Notes/caveats:

1. For the Army, the figures reflect the MDS of Full-Time Trade Trained Strength of the Infantry, the Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps and the Army Air Corps only, which are defined by the Army as personnel serving in a ‘combat role’.
2. The Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force do not have a definition for ‘combat role’ and the figures therefore reflect the MDS of Full-Time Trained Strength.
3. The figures include Reserve Forces personnel filling Regular posts whilst serving on Full Time Reserve Service and Gurkha personnel. Other Reserves, Civilians, Foreign Service, and non-UK military personnel are excluded.
4. The Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP) was used to obtain information on MDS. Prior to July 2022, MDS was sourced from a combination of DMICP medical records and data held on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system. Since July 2022 MDS has been sourced directly from DMICP due to improvements in data quality.