The Army has assessed caretaker staffing requirements through the Army Caretaker Review, which considered the ongoing requirement for civilian caretaker roles across the Reserve and University Officers Training Corps estate.

The review found that sites could be maintained through alternative arrangements, including facilities management contracts and security systems.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided to UIN 79483 National Security: Staff 20 October 2025.

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-10-10/79483

I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided to Question 21645 Defence Intelligence: Recruitment on 8 September 2026.

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-08-28/21645

Between Wednesday 25 August and Thursday 3 September, 93 Ministry of Defence employees attended Piccadilly Gate. This equates to 82 per cent of employees who work primarily from Picadilly Gate. Attendance varies from week to week, and as this data refers to the end of the summer holiday period it may not be reflective of wider attendance rates.

The commitment in paragraph 4.2.5 of the Defence Investment Plan is to reduce Civil Service workforce costs by at least 10% by 2030, while reshaping the workforce around Defence priorities and protecting critical skills. Further detail on the future size and structure of the workforce will be provided in the autumn through the Long-Term Workforce Plan.

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.

Progress has been made. Detailed process and system design across Military and Civilian HR, Finance and Commercial is well advanced. Completed system design identifies opportunity to incorporate AI in both our user experience layer, processing, and service transactions. Early automation has also delivered practical benefits. The Defence Business Services Automation Garage has reduced the time taken to complete routine activity for military personnel, including through the automation of ID request services, the simplification of applications for deceased persons' military records, and the use of Power Apps to remove manual handling and improve processing times. Source to Contract capability is intended to improve front-line procurement by simplifying and standardising commercial processes, reducing re-keying and manual work, improving supplier and contract data, and giving commercial teams better visibility of procurement pipelines and approvals. This will support faster and more consistent procurement activity across Defence and enable commercial professionals to provide more effective support to front-line delivery.

The Department is now in live procurement for its Transformation and Systems Integration partners and looks forward to starting Phase 3, the transformation and build phase, which will bring these changes into operation. This next phase will support the delivery of the 20% automation ambition through modern cloud technology, improved data, new shared service arrangements, and the standardisation and consolidation of activity across the relevant functions and business areas.

Defence is committed to ensuring our Armed Forces personnel receive the best possible treatment, care and rehabilitation so they are fit to fight and can fight back to fitness. Physiotherapy is a core component of Defence healthcare, directly supporting operational readiness, recovery from injury, and return to duty.

As outlined in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), it is critical the national health ecosystem—Defence, the NHS, and the private sector—has the capacity and capability to meet the Nation's needs in peacetime and during conflict.

Defence Medical Command is working closely with the NHS to strengthen medical capability, including rehabilitation and recovery services. Future workforce requirements will be informed by ongoing Defence workforce planning; no decisions have been taken on specific increases to the number of civilian physiotherapists, Regular military physiotherapists, Reserve military physiotherapists, or rehabilitation support staff.

Further, the department is working with Allies, through the NATO Medical Action Plan, focused on addressing priority challenges in workforce; including Allied Health Professionals, such as physiotherapists, and the wider Defence medical workforce.

The Army Caretaker Review remains ongoing and no final decisions have been made. Consultation on the proposed implementation plan is taking place with the recognised trade unions. Affected employees have been informed of the proposal and indicative timeline and will be updated following consultation.

Of the 123 caretakers currently in scope of the review, 89% occupy accommodation linked to their caretaker role. This data is correct as at 1 September 2026. The proposed timetable for vacating linked accommodation, including cases where employment may continue beyond 31 March 2027, remains subject to consultation and implementation planning.

The Department recognises the uncertainty and potential impact on affected caretakers and their families. Housing-related issues, including transitional arrangements and the proposed timetable for vacating tied accommodation, are being considered as part of implementation planning. Requests to remain in accommodation beyond the end of the role, under a different rental agreement, would be considered on a case-by-case basis by the property owner, taking account of Defence requirements, site security, estate plans and individual circumstances.

Affected employees will receive support through line management, Human Resources , trades union representatives and the Employee Assistance Programme. Army caretakers across the UK, will also be encouraged to engage early with local housing authorities and relevant independent advice services where they may need support to secure alternative accommodation.

Work is underway to identify suitable redeployment opportunities within Defence and the wider Civil Service. Redundancy would only be considered where suitable redeployment cannot be secured. Any financial assistance or compensation would be considered in line with the relevant Civil Service compensation scheme provisions and wider departmental policy.

The Army Caretaker Review remains ongoing and no final decisions have been made. Consultation on the proposed implementation plan is taking place with the recognised trade unions. Affected employees have been informed of the proposal and indicative timeline and will be updated following consultation.

Of the 123 caretakers currently in scope of the review, 89% occupy accommodation linked to their caretaker role. This data is correct as at 1 September 2026. The proposed timetable for vacating linked accommodation, including cases where employment may continue beyond 31 March 2027, remains subject to consultation and implementation planning.

The Department recognises the uncertainty and potential impact on affected caretakers and their families. Housing-related issues, including transitional arrangements and the proposed timetable for vacating tied accommodation, are being considered as part of implementation planning. Requests to remain in accommodation beyond the end of the role, under a different rental agreement, would be considered on a case-by-case basis by the property owner, taking account of Defence requirements, site security, estate plans and individual circumstances.

Affected employees will receive support through line management, Human Resources , trades union representatives and the Employee Assistance Programme. Army caretakers across the UK, will also be encouraged to engage early with local housing authorities and relevant independent advice services where they may need support to secure alternative accommodation.

Work is underway to identify suitable redeployment opportunities within Defence and the wider Civil Service. Redundancy would only be considered where suitable redeployment cannot be secured. Any financial assistance or compensation would be considered in line with the relevant Civil Service compensation scheme provisions and wider departmental policy.

There are currently no plans to reduce the number of Civil Service Defence Driving Examiners. Since April 2026, all Defence Driving Examiner posts have been established as full-time Civil Service roles, enabling Service personnel to remain focused on their primary operational duties.

The Department will continue to ensure that Defence driving test capacity is maintained to meet operational requirements.

As at 1 April 2025, 2,800 Military (UK Regular Forces) and MOD Civilian Personnel were based in Wales.

Latest statistics on the stationed location of UK regular service and civilian personnel and international global locations as at 1 April 2026 will be published on 9 July 2026 on gov.uk at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/location-of-all-uk-regular-service-and-civilian-personnel-annual-statistics-index

Programme Euston will be one of the most significant and sustained Government investments in Scotland over the coming decades. Employment and training in the local area will rise and the investment will drive regional economic skills and social/environmental benefits further afield.

The commercial approach for the delivery of the dock and shoreside elements of Programme Euston will be finalised as part of the investment decision to be outlined following the publication of the Defence Investment Plan. The actual number of UK-based jobs and apprenticeships that will be created as a result of the Programme can only be assessed following completion of the procurement process.

The commercial approach for the delivery of the dock and shoreside elements of Programme Euston will be finalised as part of the final investment decision which will be outlined following the publication of the Defence Investment Plan.

As the Armed Forces Commissioner organisation matures, staffing requirements will be kept under review, with the expectation that the Ministry of Defence will provide the appropriate funding and practical support needed.

A provisional organisational structure was agreed ahead of 1 April 2026 and is available on the Commissioner’s website: www.afcommissioner.org.uk/sites/default/files/2026-03/AFC%20Org%20Chart%20-%20Website.pdf

Detailed information concerning the numbers, nature and timeliness of Service Complaints was published by the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF) in its Annual Reports which were laid before Parliament, and in the supporting Annual Statistical Tables that are available on the SCOAF website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-statisticals-tables

Information on the numbers of complaints received by the SCOAF from LGBTQ+ personnel, and the number of staff hours and cost expended in working on complaints made to the SCOAF is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The office of the Armed Forces Commissioner was established on 1 April 2026, and no verified statistics are currently available.

Data regarding permanent Service personnel stationed at British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) can be found below.

Number of UK Regular Armed Forces Service Personnel Stationed at BATUS, Suffield, Canada 2016 - 2025

The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is critical to securing Defence assets and people. Recruitment is kept under constant review and is driven by Defence requirements and takes account of the number of leavers and joiners at any given time.

At the end of December 2025, Defence saw an increase in workforce that delivers the policing, guarding, and security effect across the delivery groups under a single authority (SJC). We are accelerating recruitment of Ministry of Defence Police, MOD Guard Service through targeted campaigns and implementation of targeted retention bonus for hard to recruit locations and there are now some 250 more Military Provost Guard Service than in 2020. This steady growth is supported by plans to increase this in coming months. Defence takes security seriously, which is demonstrated by the carve outs from civil service recruitment freezes and voluntary exit schemes.

The annual budget for the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) are shown below:

The workforce numbers for the Ministry of Defence Police are below. Note that the 2025 figure reflects workforce plans set under the previous government:

¹ Ministry of Defence Police officers

² Non-uniformed Civil Servants

* Original target. Target was replaced during the course of the year by site specific recruitment targets because of ongoing reviews to reduce the number of MDP posts across the UK resulting from introduction of a new operating police model (OPM), reprioritisation of security risk and the replacement of MDP with alternative policing/security providers.

It has not been possible to provide the answer within the timeframe given, I will write to the hon. Member as soon as practical and will place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.