Armed Forces: Training
Defence
Madeleine Moon (Bridgend, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) RAF, (b) Army and (c) Royal Navy personnel have received cultural training prior to deployment overseas in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.
Gerald Howarth (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (International Security Strategy), Defence; Aldershot, Conservative)
All personnel deploying on operations receive pre-deployment training, which includes cultural orientation. This is delivered either through individual or collective training. Pre-deployment training will also include refresher training on the Law of Armed Conflict and the Geneva Convention. This training is vital to assisting our troops' ability to engage with and work alongside local communities in which they are deployed. There is joint as well as individual service training, and the number of personnel deployed on overseas operations over the last three years is:
| Table 1: Total UK armed forces (1) personnel identified as having deployed on overseas operations (2,3,4 ) each year since April 2009 | |||
| Financial year | |||
| 2009-10 | 2010 -1 1 | 2011-12 | |
| All services | 58,560 | 57,520 | 60,190 |
| Naval Service | 7,820 | 9,080 | 10,510 |
| Army | 37,260 | 34,670 | 34,500 |
| Royal Air Force | 13,480 | 13,780 | 15,190 |
| (1) UK armed forces personnel includes UK regular forces, Gurkhas, full-time reserve service (FTRS) personnel and mobilised reservists. (2) Overseas operations are defined as the total number of personnel currently deployed outside the UK's borders. This includes all military personnel mobilised for contingency operations, wartime operations, United Nations peacekeeping operations and humanitarian operations. (3) Data includes only personnel who are deployed to an overseas location with an assigned country code. All personnel on overseas training exercises are excluded from the total figures. (4) Total numbers deployed do not include repeat tours and each individual is recorded only once per financial year. Notes: 1. All figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Due to ongoing validation of Joint Personnel Administration, all data provided is provisional and subject to change. Source: DASA (Quad-Service). | |||