HC Deb 21 January 1997 vol 288 cc553-4W
Mr. Hardy

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the strength of(a) uniformed personnel and (b) civilian employees within each of the armed services as at 1 January 1997. [11847]

Mr. Soames

The most recent figures available relate to 1 December 1996 and are published by the Defence Analytical Services Agency in "Service and Civilian Personnel Statistics Monthly Return (SCPS) 1", which is available in the House of Commons Library. Figures for 1 January 1997 will be available in the first week of February 1997. The breakdowns of regular armed forces and permanent UK based civilian staff as at 1 December 1996 are as follows:

Navy personnel Army personnel RAF personnel All service personnel Civilian employees
Navy budget areas 42,321 988 193 43,502 22,444
Army budget areas 168 98,348 294 98,810 34,426
RAF budget areas 110 192 54,689 54,991 16,690
Central budget areas 3,082 10,221 5,437 18,740 21,471
Trading funds 136 96 206 438 14,960
Service LEPs (including Gurkhas) 206 4,620 4,826
All 46,023 114,465 60,819 221,307 109,993

In accordance with civilian headcount conventions, part-timers are counted as the proportion of full-time hours they work. Totals may not equal the sum of the parts due to rounding. Included in the 114,465 Army personnel are 1,183 reserves serving in the former Yugoslavia.