Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of Royal Air Force fighter pilots.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) continually assesses pilot numbers to appropriately resource the Combat Air Force and are comfortable with the number of Royal Air Force fighter pilots against extant Defence Tasks. The MOD has a range of governance measures in place to analyse UK Military Flying Training System throughput to ensure pilot numbers meet the demand for Defence both now and in the future.

The MOD will continue to provide quarterly statistics to the Hon Gentleman’s select committee on pilot training as agreed in the last Parliament.