Written question asked by Liam Fox (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 March 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 March 2006. It was answered by Lord Touhig (Labour) on Thursday, 16 March 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Royal Navy

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the (a) actual strength and (b) establishment of (i) engineering technicians, (ii) operator mechanics and (iii) communication technicians in the Royal Navy.

Answer

The information requested is shown in the following table.

	As at 1 January 2006
		Regular Strength
	Total Strength	Untrained	Trained	FTRS	Trained Requirement
Eng Techs, Arts and Mechs	11,210	1,660	9,390	160	9,900
(Technicians)	400	380	30	0	2,300
(Artificers)	5,430	1,050	4,280	100	4,050
(Mechanics)	5,380	230	5,090	60	3,560
Operator Maintainers	6,980	480	6,430	70	6,550
Communications Technicians	310	40	270	—	230
Notes: Engineering Technicians are new branches which are being formed by the merger of the old artificer and mechanics branches. This process is still in transition, so to get a clear picture of strengths against requirement it is necessary to look at all three groups together. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Numbers ending in five have been rounded to the nearest even multiple of 10 The trained strength and the FTRS (full-time Reserve Service) are both used to fill trained requirement posts.
⁽³⁹⁾ Less than five.

Secondary information