Written question asked by Julian Brazier (Conservative) on Tuesday, 24 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 3 July 2008. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Monday, 7 July 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces: Manpower

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the latest total manning figures are for (a) the Territorial Army, (b) the Royal Naval Reserve, (c) the Royal Marines Reserves and (d) the Royal Auxiliary Air Force; and how many personnel from each category have been mobilised in total for Operations (i) Herrick and (ii) Telic.

Answer

[holding answer 3 July 2008]: The information is as follows:

Latest available manning figures for the volunteer reserves
	Number
Royal Naval Reserve	2,103
Royal Marines Reserve	890
Territorial Army	¹30,000
Royal Auxiliary Air Force	1,403
¹ More accurate data is not currently available for the TA.

Number of mobilisations¹ for operations² since 2004 (previous figures not available)
	Number
Royal Naval Reserve	599
Royal Marines Reserve	384
Territorial Army	9,542
Royal Auxiliary Air Force	2,435
¹ This includes a number of personnel who have been mobilised more than once; more than 2,000 personnel have been mobilised more than once, the vast majority of these being specialists mobilised for periods of three months or less.
² It is not always possible to separately identify those mobilised for Op Telic in Iraq, or Op Herrick, in Afghanistan. Once mobilised, Reservists may serve in more than one operational theatre, and many support all operations from bases in the UK and elsewhere.

Secondary information