27 Sep 06. The UK Defence Statistics 2006 are published today. The statistics are an annual statistical compendium containing a wealth of information on defence expenditure, Service and civilian personnel and defence activities.
The compendium comprises seven chapters. The first looks at Finance – how much the MOD spends and on what. It also looks at the value of imports and exports, at employment generated by defence spending and at the value of contracts awarded by the MOD.
The second chapter contains information on Service and Civilian Personnel. This includes information on the changing size and structure of the MOD, where people are located, military pay, deaths in service, compensation claims made against the MOD, civilian sickness absence and analysis by ethnic origin.
The third chapter, Formations, Vessels, Aircraft and Vehicles of the Armed Forces covers the strength and formation of the Armed Forces.
Chapter four has details of Aircraft Air Accidents, Casualties, Flying Hours and Vehicle Accidents, chapter five covers Military Search and Rescue statistics, chapter six looks at Land Holdings and Buildings, and chapter seven looks at Northern Ireland and Military Aid to the Civil Community and Conflict Prevention.
Some key statistics:
Finance
* Expenditure against MOD Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL)
during 2005/06 was an estimated £39.8bn, including depreciation
and cost of capital charges.
* In 2005/06 defence had the fifth highest Departmental Expenditure
(including DEL and Annually Managed Expenditure), behind Work and
Pensions, Health, Local Government, and Education and Skills;
* In 2004/05, the MOD spent £14.5bn with UK suppliers, excluding VAT, about half of which went to manufacturing industries;
* Estimated UK employment dependent on MOD expenditure and defence
exports remained relatively steady at 310,000 in 2004/05;
* In 2005/06 MOD HQ placed nearly 26,000 contracts with a total value
of £18.2bn.
* In 2005/06, the MOD spent around £1.2bn on conflict prevention worldwide.
* The estimated costs of peacekeeping in Iraq were £958m in 2005/06 compared with £910m in 2004/05.
Personnel
* At 1 April 2006, there were 305,300 personnel employed by the MOD
compared with 329,400 in 2001. This reduction is primarily a result
of the restructuring of the Armed Forces. Over the same period the
number of Service personnel (including Gurkhas and full-time
reservists) fell from 211,200 to 201,400 (a 5% decrease) and the
number of civilians fell from 118,200 to 103,900 (a 12% decrease).
* The total full-time trained strength of the Armed Forces was just
under 3,000 below requirement on 1 April 2006, an improvement over
the 1 April 2005 figure.
* The proportion of serving Armed Forces personnel from the ethnic
minorities stood at 5.5% at 1 April 2006.
* The proportion of serving Armed Forces personnel who are female
increased from 7.0 per cent in 1997 to 9.1 per cent in 2006.
* The proportion of female civilian staff has risen from 33% in 1997
to 36% in 2006 (excluding the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Locally
Employed Personnel for whom sex is not recorded centrally)
* Of those MOD civilians reporting their disability status at 1 April
2006, around 5.5% classed themselves as disabled.
* Approximately 36% of MOD Civilians were aged over 50 on 1 April
2006 (excluding RFA and those whose age is not available)
Other areas
* In 2005, there were 1,641 UK or overseas search and rescue
incidents resulting in 1,766 callouts of Royal Navy and RAF
Helicopters, Nimrod aircraft and Mountain Rescue Teams. Together
they moved a total of 1,432 people.
* The number of Service Personnel permanently committed to Northern
Ireland under the command of the General Officer Commanding Northern
Ireland fell from 10,780 on 1 April 2005 to 9,330 on 1 April 2006.
Some of these personnel are based in Great Britain. In 2005/06, for
the seventh successive y