Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 13 July 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 15 July 2009. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Thursday, 16 July 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many serving officers there are in each of the three services.

Answer: As at 1 May 2009 the trained strength of UK Regular Forces¹ included 6,480 officers in the Naval Service, 13,800 in the Army and 8,420 in the Royal Air Force.A full breakdown of the strength of UK Regular Forces by officer/other rank, training indicator and service can be found in Tri-Service Publication 1, which is published on a monthly basis at the following link:"http://www.dasa.mod.uk/applications/newWeb/www/apps/publications/pubViewFile.php?content=32&date=2009-06-23&type=html&PublishTime=09:30:00"Due to ongoing validation of data from the Joint Personnel Administration System, all strength statistics are provisional and subject to review."¹ UK Regular Forces excludes Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve personnel and mobilised reservists."

Secondary information