HC Deb 17 December 2002 vol 396 cc715-6W
Chris Ruane

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many(a) military personnel and (b) civil servants there are in his Department, broken down by region. [87152]

Dr. Moonie

The available information is given in table 1 below showing the position for the United Kingdom Regular Forces as at April 2002. For consistency table 2 shows Civilian Personnel as at April 2002 and in addition the latest information as at October 2002.

Table 1 UK regular forces2 by country and Government office region (GOR) as at April 2002 (all services)
Number
United Kingdom 171,340
By Government Office Region
England 141,720
North East 1,310
North West 1,520
Yorkshire and the Humber 13,760
East Midlands 7,510
West Midlands 6,710
Eastern 18,460
London 6,670
South East 49,990
South West 35,790
Wales 2,290
Scotland 14,250
Northern Ireland4 7,660
Unknowns4 5,420
Notes:
1 All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
2 Figures are for UK Regular Forces, both trained and untrained, located in the UK. They therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full-time Reserve Service personnel, the Home Service battalions of the Royal Regiment and mobilised reservists.
2,291 Gurkhas deployed in the United Kingdom at 1 April 2002.
1,986 Full-time Reserve Service Personnel at 1 April 2002.
3,645 Personnel in the Home Service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment at 1 April 2002.
3 Naval Service personnel on sea service are included against the local authority containing the home port of their ship.
4The detailed figures have been compiled from unit statistics related to unit postcodes. For some units postcode information is either unavailable or inappropriate. These units include personnel who are known to be in Northern Ireland, so these have been added to the Northern Ireland total. The others are in the `Unknowns' row.