HC Deb 02 May 2000 vol 349 c10W
Mr. Key

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the(a) trained strength and (b) trained requirement of the UK (i) regular armed forces, (ii) reserve forces and (iii) Territorial Army. [118789]

Mr. Spellar

The latest available figures on a consistent basis across all services are as follows:

  1. (a) UK Regular Forces trained strength and trained requirement as at 1 February 2000:
    • UK Regular Forces1 trained strength—186,317
    • UK Regular Forces2 trained requirement—194,661
  2. (b) UK Volunteer Reserve Forces strength and post-SDR establishment as at 1 February 2000 (all figures include trained and untrained personnel):
  • UK Volunteer Reserve Forces3 current strength (includes Territorial Army strength4 of 44,387)—50,224
  • UK Volunteer Reserve Forces5 post-SDR establishment (includes Territorial Army post-SDR establishment of 41,204)—48,288
1 Excludes trained strength of 3,259 Gurkhas. 2 Excludes trained requirement of 2,945 Gurkhas. 3 Includes volunteer reserve forces only. These comprise the Royal Naval Reserve, the Royal Marine Reserve, the Territorial Army and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. 4 Excludes strength of 1,408 non-regular permanent staff. 5 See note3.