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Written question asked by Lord Sarfraz (Conservative) on Monday, 5 October 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 October 2026. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Friday, 16 October 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces: Automation

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government how many military personnel have been released from back-office roles to front-line roles as a result of automation since the publication of the Strategic Defence Review 2025.

Answer

The Department remains committed to maximising the operational effectiveness of the Armed Forces and ensuring that Defence personnel are focused on activity that best supports front-line outcomes. As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, Defence is taking forward work to move Regular personnel from administrative activity into front-line roles and to automate at least 20% of Human Resources, Finance and Commercial functions by July 2028.

This commitment is being delivered through the Defence Reform and Efficiency Plan, including the Corporate Services Modernisation programme, which is redesigning and modernising Defence’s People, Finance and Commercial services. The programme is simplifying policy and processes, standardising activity, consolidating services where appropriate and introducing modern digital tools to reduce manual work, strengthen access to reliable management information and improve the user experience. This will reduce the back-office burden, improve productivity and release capacity for front-line activity while maintaining effective support to all personnel.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL3870
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Armed forces Automation
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk