Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress he has made on meeting the 2020 target for numbers of personnel in the armed forces.

It remains a priority for each Service to meet the target for Armed Forces personnel strength in 2020 and there are a range of measures both already in progress and in the pipeline to improve the position. These include the introduction of the Armed Forces People Programme to modernise aspects of the employment offer including scope for flexible working and the Future Accommodation Model.

Record employment levels and significant demographic changes contribute to creating a challenging recruitment environment for the Armed Forces. Whilst there are shortfalls in the trained Armed Forces personnel; overall the trained strength remains at over 93% of its target and, most importantly, we continue to meet all our operational commitments. We are working to address the shortfalls, continue to apply a range of measures to improve recruitment and retention and keep the challenge under constant review.