Reserve Forces
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel are eligible for service in the strategic reserve in each of the armed forces.
Answered by Al Carns
The Strategic Reserve comprises two distinct elements: those former Service personnel with an ongoing legal liability to train and to be called out if needed (the Regular Reserve) and those with a legal liability to be recalled in the direst of situations (the Recall Reserve).
Numbers within the Regular Reserve are routinely published within the Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-index). In table 8a of the Excel spreadsheet with the latest April 2025 figures, the Tri-Service UK Regular Reserve forces totalled 36,398 of which:
Reserve Naval and Marine Forces Regular Reserve: 6,774
Reserve Land Forces Regular Reserve: 22,897
Reserve Air Forces Regular Reserve: 6,727
Defence does not currently publish Recall Reserve statistics but as part of the Strategic Defence Review, we are working to step up engagement with the Strategic Reserve and establish a digitised approach to Reserves management.
We will reinvigorate our relationship with the Strategic Reserve to ensure the UK is ready to respond at scale to global insecurity. It is also a chance to renew the bond between society and those who’ve served, and to unlock the unique expertise gained through military Service and deploying it when it matters most.
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