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Military Bands

Answer

The Government is proud of those who serve in our military bands. They not only support all year-round engagements but also serve secondary roles supporting defence. Armed Forces personnel who serve in military bands have a secondary specialisation in support of operations; for example those in the Army support deployed medicine; Naval personnel can form part of a medical team on board a casualty-receiving facility, and Royal Air Force Musicians are also trained in the Counter-CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear) role of establishing and running a Casualty Decontamination Area, a declared NATO capability.

The number and proportion of Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM) and Royal Air Force (RAF) Full-Time Trained Strength (FTTS) and Army Full-Time Trade Trained Strength (FTTTS) Personnel serving in Military Bands as at 1 April 2024 was:

Service	Total	Officers	Other Ranks
Strength of Military Bands	1,190	55	1,135
Proportion of FTTS/FTTTS	0.9%	0.2%	1.1%
RN/RM	345	15	330
Proportion of RN/RM FTTS	1.2%	0.2%	1.5%
Army	692	36	656
Proportion of Army FTTTS	1.0%	0.3%	1.1%
RAF	153	4	149
Proportion of RAF FTTS	0.5%	0.1%	0.5%

Source: Analysis (Tri-Service)

In the most recent Financial Year (FY, 2023-24), expenditure on all band activity was as follows:

Service	Expenditure in FY 2023-24 (£Million)
RN/RM	1.650
Army	7.334
Royal Air Force	0.648

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

29168

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Finance Military bands

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk