Written question asked by Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 February 2026 (named day). It was answered by Louise Sandher-Jones (Labour) on Wednesday, 29 April 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Reserve Forces

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people served in the Armed Forces as Reservists between 2000 and 2015.

Answer

Statistics on UK Reserve Forces are published on gov.uk at the following links:

UK Regular Reserve Forces figures between 1 April 1995 - 1 April 2011 have been taken from the UK Reserves And Cadets Strengths available at the following link: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20140116145334/http://www.dasa.mod.uk/index.php/publications/personnel/military/reserves-and-cadets-strengths

UK Volunteer Reserves figures between 1 April 1995 - 1 April 2011 have been taken from the UK Defence Statistics Compendium available at the following link: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20140116145634/http://www.dasa.mod.uk/index.php/publications/UK-defence-statistics-compendium

UK Regular Reserve Forces and Volunteer Reserves figures between 1 April 2012 - 1 April 2015 have been taken from the Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics, the latest edition of the publication is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2025

Secondary information