§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many(a) army personnel, (b) navy personnel and (c) RAF personnel are (i) assigned to operations, (ii) training for operations, (iii) recovering from operations and (iv) training for their assigned role; and what the percentage is of each service in each case. [49674]
§ Mr. IngramI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 3 April 2002,Official Report, column 1019–20W. The table shows the total number and percentage of trained service personnel deployed on military tasks at home and abroad. This includes personnel deployed on operations (e.g. in Afghanistan) and ongoing commitments (e.g. in the Falkland Islands), but excludes those personnel undertaking public duties.
Number Percentage Navy (including Marines) 5,707 15.3 Army 23,440 23.2 Air Force 6,324 12.9 The remaining data requested are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, we estimate that around 5–6 per cent. of trained service personnel are either preparing for, or recovering from, deployments on military tasks.
Those service personnel not accounted for in the above figures are engaged in a wide range of other activities, including collective and individual training.