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Armed Forces: Foreign Nationals

Answer

There is a long tradition of Commonwealth citizens serving in the British Armed Forces, and we continue to value their service which provides an important contribution in defending the UK at home and abroad.

The table below shows the numbers of Commonwealth citizens serving in our Armed Forces as at 1 April 2018:

Service	Royal Navy/ Royal Marines	Army	Royal Air Force	Total
Regulars	480	3,940	80	4,500
FR20 Reserves	10	190	10	210
Total	490	4,140	90	4,720

The 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the Regular forces represent 3.4% of the Regular trained strength. The 210 Commonwealth citizens in the FR20 Reserves represent 0.7% of the FR20 Reserve trained strength.

Notes:

• Figures for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and Royal Air Force are for the Trained Regular Population and Trained FR20 population. Army figures are for Trade Trained Regular population, and Trained FR20 population.
• Nationality is as reported on the Joint Personnel Administration system
• Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

We keep our recruitment policies under constant review, and should there be any future changes in relation to applications from the Commonwealth these will be made clear on the single Service websites.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL10761

Session

2017-19

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Armed forces Commonwealth Foreign nationals Recruitment

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk