Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total number of staff members was of the global network of British Defence Staffs in each year since 2010.
The total annual budget for the global network of British Defence Staffs (BDS) in each year since 2010 can be found in the table below:
Year | Total Annual Budget of BDS £million |
2010-11 | 83.3 |
2011-12 | 87.5 |
2012-13 | 84.5 |
2013-14 | 84.9 |
2014-15 | 65.4 |
2015-16 | 64.4 |
2016-17 | 69.8 |
2017-18 | 72.1 |
2018-19 | 68.4 |
2019-20 | 77.4 |
2020-21 | 92.5 |
2021-22 | 93.2 |
2022-23 | 99.7 |
The Department only holds information on the total number of personnel for the global network of British Defence Staffs since 2018. This can be found in the table below:
Years | Total Number of BDS Personnel |
2018-19 | 539 |
2019-20 | 546 |
2020-21 | 533 |
2021-22 | 508 |
2022-23 | 535 |
As committed in the Integrated Review, we are continuing to invest around £60 million in expanding and improving our global network of British Defence Staffs, increasing it by nearly a third. This will take place over several years through rebalancing Defence assets rather than necessarily recruiting additional staff.