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Written question asked by Stuart Anderson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 14 July 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 July 2026. It was answered by Calvin Bailey (Labour) on Tuesday, 21 July 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Air Force

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, out of the 31,080 (April 26) RAF personnel how many of them are medically downgraded.

Answer

At 1 April 2026 (most recently available data) 11.6% of UK full-time trained RAF personnel were graded Medically Non-Deployable (MND). Personnel graded as MND are not fit to deploy on Operations, they may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. Personnel graded MND may require continued medical care, long term medication and access to secondary care facilities.

8.4% of RAF personnel were graded Medically Limited Deployable (MLD). Personnel with a grade of MLD are medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. A grade of MLD requires a medical risk assessment to be carried out for deployment. The decision on that deployment will depend on the medical condition, individual function, the proposed employment, length of the deployment and the medical support available. As such, it should not be assumed that only those personnel graded Medically Fully Deployable are able to deploy.

This response presents Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) for full-time trained personnel as regular untrained personnel cannot deploy.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
18705
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Air force Health
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk