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Written question asked by Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party) on Friday, 14 April 2023, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 April 2023 (named day). It was answered by James Heappey (Conservative) on Wednesday, 19 April 2023 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Gibraltar: Armed Forces

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ministry of Defence personnel are deployed in Gibraltar (a) permanently and (b) temporarily, broken down by unit.

Answer

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) employs 952 personnel in Gibraltar, of which 528 are locally employed civilians. The remainder are military and UK-based civil servants.

The individual units of deployed MOD personnel are broken down as follows:

· Royal Gibraltar Regiment - 235 personnel

· Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron - 28 personnel

· RAF Gibraltar - 16 personnel

· HQ British Forces Gibraltar - 145 personnel

Gibraltar is routinely used by visiting Royal Navy ships, RAF aircraft and other units that temporarily deploy to conduct training. These visits total approximately 12,000 to 14,000 personnel per year. Exact numbers fluctuate, but indicative figures based on the number of visits in calendar year 2022 are as follows:

· 79 ship visits per year (2022), which equates to around 6,000 to 7,000 Naval personnel.

· 117 military aircraft per year (2022), with around 4,000 military passengers.

· 2,000-3,000 personnel on training deployments per year, mostly from the Army.

· HMS TRENT (63 Ship's Company) is also forward deployed from Gibraltar.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
180010
Session
2022-23
Subjects
Armed forces Deployment Gibraltar
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk