HC Deb 29 January 1991 vol 184 c500W
Sir Peter Hordern

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people are employed in the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force; and how many are non-combatant.

Mr. Archie Hamilton

There were 303,003 service personnel employed in the armed forces as at 30 September 1990, including 12,677 non-combatants. The numbers employed in each service, together with the numbers of non-combatants are shown in the table.

Total personnel Non-combatants1
Royal Navy 54,859 2,462
Royal Marines 7,474
Army 151,764 7,218
Royal Air Force 88,906 2,997
1 Medical and dental personnel, as well as chaplains, are regarded as non-combatants. Musicians have also been included in the figures for non-combatants, given that they generally have medical roles.

Back to
Forward to