British Overseas Territories: Armed Forces
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK military personnel are deployed in each Overseas Territory.
Answered by Luke Pollard
The Ministry of Defence has UK military personnel across various UK Overseas Territories. The approximate* breakdown of military personnel permanently based in UK Overseas Territories is as follows:
Ascension Island | Falkland Islands | Gibraltar | British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) | The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia | Turks and Caicos Islands |
20 | 830 | 140** | 40 | 2,370 | 1 |
In addition to this, across all UK Overseas Territories, there are also personnel deployed on operations.
While there may be other categories of personnel in other UK Overseas Territories, this information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
* Personnel change over and transition on a regular basis. With leave and other commitments (such as training), specific numbers may fluctuate.
** This figure excludes the Royal Gibraltar Regiment (RG), around 270 personnel whose home base is Gibraltar.
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