Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the strength is of each (a) English, (b) Scottish, (c) Welsh, (d) Irish and (e) Gurkha battalion.

The table below shows the Trade Trained Regular strength of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish Infantry and Royal Armoured Corps regiments, and Infantry Gurkha strength as at 1 January 2021.

Table notes:

1. The above figures are for Infantry and RAC only and include all members within the regiment regardless of whether they are serving at regimental duty.
2. Figures provided are for Trade Trained Regular and Infantry Gurkhas only and the figures do not include Reserves.
3. Regimental data has been provided as opposed to battalion, in order to capture the c.4200 who are not working at regimental duty.
4. All Officers of Paid Rank Colonel and above are included in Staff regardless of late Arm/Corps and have therefore been excluded from the figures.
5. The above Regular figures only include those regiments that are considered English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish. Those who are not associated to a specific country are not included.
6. All other regiments within the RAC are not wholly related to any one country due to historical mergers.
7. The Royal Gurkha Rifles figure includes both GURTAM and Regular Army Officers.
8. Figures have been rounded to 10 for presentational purposes, numbers ending in ‘5’ have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to present systematic bias.