Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) UK and (b) other personnel were in the Joint Expeditionary Force in each year since 2016; and how much the UK has contributed to the Joint Expeditionary Force in the same period.

The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) HQ is operated through the UK Standing Joint Force Headquarters, which undertakes several commitments. Depending on the activity, the HQ can routinely provide up to 82 people from across 10 nations, with further augmentation from across the forces; for example, JOINT PROTECTOR in November 2024 saw an augmentation of a further 36 UK personnel. The advantage of the JEF is its ability to scale up dynamically in accordance with the requirement by generating forces from across 10 nations to meet the specific need encountered. An additional three personnel in the MOD are also permanently engaged managing the UK’s commitments to the JEF as the Framework Nation, with Participant Nation provided desk officers in each of their own Ministry of Defence (MOD) equivalent strategic HQs.

Numbers of personnel engaged in JEF activity since 2016 have not been overall recorded. However, approximate figures have been captured since 2021:

As for costs, the JEF provides a framework to pool sovereign resources and coordinate their effect but does not routinely retain or command these national assets from across the Participant Nations, therefore costs remain with the relevant Participant Nation providing them for that specific activity. The JEF Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed in 2018, outlines the requirements and arrangements for nations contributing and participating in JEF activities, with all costs allocated on a case-by-case basis, with the general principle that costs fall where they lie.