Gurkhas
Defence
Written answers and statements, 10 July 2006
Willie Rennie (Shadow Minister, Defence; Dunfermline & Fife West, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate his Department has made of the number of Gurkhas who have completed their service who are living (a) in the UK and (b) abroad.
Tom Watson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Veterans), Ministry of Defence; West Bromwich East, Labour)
holding answer
We do not monitor the movements of ex-Gurkhas after they have left the Army, therefore we can only provide information based on pension statistics. As of today, 20,426 Gurkhas are in receipt of service pensions. Of these, all are drawing their pensions in Nepal except for 99 drawing them in the United Kingdom and 15 in other countries. The Gurkha Welfare Trust pays pensions to a further 10,542 ex-Gurkhas who are not entitled to service pensions.