Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the number of veterans who were part of the Balloon Unit of Operation Grapple Z in 1958; and how many of those veterans were alive as at 3 February 2021.

The information is not held in the format requested. The unit records for the Balloon Unit are in the public domain and are held by The National Archives. The Ministry of Defence does not collect data on all Service personnel once they have left the Armed Forces and therefore the number of veterans who were part of the Balloon Unit of Operation Grapple Z in 1958 and were alive on 3 February 2021 is not held.