Armed Forces
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of whether current force levels across the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are sufficient to meet assessed threats.
Answered by Al Carns
Our Armed Forces are ready to deter, fight and win - today, tomorrow and together with our allies.
Since elected, this Government has been committed to strengthening our Armed Forces. Through the Strategic Defence Review, we have outlined plans to increase the total number of Regular personnel, when funding allows. Additionally, we have embraced a whole-of-society approach to deterrence and defence, reinforcing our collective resilience, and are committed to increasing the number of Active Reserves by 20%, bolstering surge capacity and showcasing the UK's readiness to defend itself.
We do not disclose Force levels, but they remain under constant review. However, we do routinely publish our UK Service personnel statistics on strengths, requirements, intake, applications and outflow, by Service available at the link provided below:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2025
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