WIREDGOV

Latest UK Armed Forces manning figures released

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE News Release (043/2009) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 26 February 2009

Figures showing that the UK Armed Forces are currently at 97.2 per cent of their full time trained strength requirement have been released today by the MOD. This is up from 96.8 per cent last quarter and shows a continued upward trend in both recruitment and retention.

The statistics show that the number of people leaving the trained strength of the Armed Forces in the 12 months to 31 December 2008 has fallen by 8.3 per cent compared with the same period last year. Overall, the amount of people leaving is at its lowest since the 12 months to 31 March 2005.

21,670 new recruits have joined the Armed Forces in the 12 months to 31 December 2008, an increase of 7.1 per cent (1,440 people) compared to the same period in 2007. The number of people joining the Armed Forces for their initial training is at its highest point since April 1 2003 to 31 March 2004.

As at 1 January 2009, the full time trained strength of the UK Armed Forces was 173,930 against a target of 178,960. This comprises 168,330 UK Regular Forces, 2,000 full time reserve service personnel and 3,600 Gurkhas. There were also 2,790 untrained officers and 14,870 other ranks.

Defence Minister Kevan Jones said:

"I am pleased that once again the Armed Forces have seen overall gains to trained strength increase: we are moving in a positive direction. We have been working hard to improve manning levels and these figures suggest that recruitment and retention initiatives such as career management, improvement to conditions of service and work/life balance, commitment bonuses and targeted Financial Retention Initiatives are working.

"While we are heavily committed to two operations, manning is more important than ever and remains one of our top priorities. We will continue to implement new measures in order to ensure the recruitment and retention of high quality soldiers, sailors and airmen. The Service Personnel Command Paper has already introduced improvements in accessing healthcare, housing and education and more will follow.

"Although we have heard anecdotal evidence to suggest that interest in Armed forces careers has increased, it is much too early to say at this stage whether the current economic climate is having any effect on Armed Forces recruitment or retention."

Since 1 January 2008, the proportion of females in the UK Regular Forces has risen 0.3 per cent to 12.0 per cent for officers and fallen 0.1 per cent for other ranks.

The percentage of UK Regular Forces from ethnic minority backgrounds continues to rise; at 1 January 2009 ethnic minorities accounted for 6.4 per cent of UK Regular Forces compared to 6.0 per cent at the same point last year.

Separate Army statistics show that Infantry strength is up compared to last year by 450 taking it to 23,230 or 94.7 per cent of the requirement.

Notes to Editors

1. Following extensive data cleansing and quality assurance, Naval Service and RAF strengths up to 1 April 2007 are finalised. All strengths are provisional from 1 May 2007 onwards for the Naval Service and RAF and from 1 April 2007 for the Army.

2. No further data will be finalised until SPVA and DASA have agreed the contents of a new monthly extract of JPA data (JPA60) and DASA have completed a thorough review of the programs run to process it. This should be completed in 2009 and will lead to the creation of a revised database (JPA2.0) which in turn could result in revisions of finalised data.

3. All Naval Service flow statistics are provisional from period ending 31 October 2006. All Army flow statistics are provisional from period ending 31 March 2007. All RAF flow statistics are provisional from period ending 30 April 2007.

4. Revisions to strength figures are likely to be less than 0.5 per cent of the provisional figure. Revisions of provisional flows could be as high as 50 per cent because individual flow figures can be much smaller.

5. The latest Voluntary Outflow (VO) applications for the Naval Service are for the 12 months ending 30 September 2006. The Naval Service do not indicate VO applications against the person's record on JPA and DASA are continuing to investigate alternative means of deriving this information. The latest Army VO applications are for the 12 months ending 31 December 2006. DASA are continuing to investigate the extent of the Army VO application data issues. The latest VO applications for the RAF are for the 12 months ending 31 March 2006. The RAF VO application data issues should now have been resolved, but it will take 12 months before a rate can be calculated. DASA anticipate 1 Feb 2010 will be the first month where a 12 month VO application rate is released.

6. The coverage of JPA ethnicity data continues to improve and intake statistics for all three Services by officers and ranks are presented except Army officers.

7. April 07 was the first ever tri-service pay run for HM Armed Forces, resulting in a 99.2% accuracy rate and figures for both May and June 07 have achieved over 99.5% accuracy. JPA is a major business change programme (similar to the People Programme for civilians) and one of the most complex ever to be undertaken in either the private or public sector. The supporting computer software application is one of the largest Oracle HR implementations worldwide, that makes the fullest use of the functionality of the software, and is the largest single payroll. The system contains around 350,000 records (nearly 1 million if pensioners are included) and supports 300,000 users worldwide from the regular and reserve forces. Nowhere has a more complex dataset - around 24 million lines of data - been so successfully migrated.

8. JPA is accessible from anywhere in the world and allows individuals to update on-line certain pieces of personal information, such as bank details and their home address. JPA also allows individuals to access their pay statements, apply for leave, submit travel, allowances and expense claims and undertake other basic personnel tasks.

9. The Service Personnel Plan 2006 provides a structure for the prioritisation and delivery of Service personnel policy over the next 15 years. It reflects the challenges and opportunities that the operational environment, demographic changes and the changing expectations of personnel and their families present to our aim of delivering sufficient, capable and motivated Armed Forces personnel. Under the auspices of the Service Personnel Plan, work is underway to ensure the effective delivery of remuneration to meet the need to recruit, retain and motivate sufficient, capable individuals to meet manning requirements.

10. The total Armed Forces manning requirement has decreased due to previously announced restructuring across the Services. This restructuring is designed to improve capability and flexibility in order to meet the demands of current and future operations.

11. All figures and percentages exclude the Home Service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment and Reservists mobilised for service.

12. The quarterly statistics (TSP4) are available on the DASA website: http://www.dasa.mod.uk/applications/newWeb/www/index.php?page=48&thiscontent=20&date=2009-02-26&pubType=1&PublishTime=09:30:00&from=home&tabOption=1

13. For further information, please contact Hannah Fletcher in the MoD press office on 020 7218 7924, or visit the MoD website at http://www.mod.uk