Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698926308756.pdf (United Kingdom)
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE FLOOR 5, ZONE B, MAIN BUILDING WHITEHALL LONDON SW1A 2HB Telephone 020 7218 9000 (Switchboard) 25 March 2021 JAMES HEAPPEY MP MINISTER FOR THE ARMED FORCES PQ/160856 Dear Imran, Thank you for your Parliamentary Questions (UINs: 160856/7/8/9, 160861/2/3 and 163321) regarding Armed Forces personnel living in, and recruited from, Wakefield.

You will recall that I responded on 9 March 2021 to advise it would take time to collate the detailed information requested.
I am now in a position to respond substantively to each of your Questions, which I have grouped (below) by subject.

How many Armed Forces reservists live in Wakefield (a) in total and (b) by each branch of the Armed Forces.

160856 How many Armed Forces reservists who live in Wakefield are not attached to any unit within the Armed Forces.

160857 How many people on Full Time Reserve Service, home commitment and full commitment, in all services have a home address of Wakefield.
160862 As at 1 January 2021 there were an estimated1 2002 volunteer Reserve (FR203) personnel stationed4 in Wakefield5, all from the Army.

All these personnel were attached to a unit6.

In addition, ten personnel were serving on Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS7) terms, none with a home or full commitment.

How many service families and dependents of people in the Armed Forces live in Wakefield.
160863 Information held by the Ministry of Defence relating to residence is focused on the Service person rather than their dependents.

However, a total of 1,180 Regular and Reserve Service personnel had declared a home address in Wakefield.

1 All figures are estimated.

Stationed locations are estimates because relevant data for the Reserve population has not been verified by Defence Statistics.
2 All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards.

Totals and sub-totals are rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts.

Figures that are five or fewer have been suppressed in accordance with our disclosure policy.
3 The definition of Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) includes volunteer reserves who are mobilised, High Readiness Reserves and volunteer reserve personnel serving on Additional Duties Commitment (ADC) or Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) contracts.

Sponsored Reserves who provide a more cost-effective solution than volunteer reserve are also included in the Army Reserve FR20 figures.
Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) and University Officer Cadets and Regular Reservists are excluded.

4 Defence Statistics hold information on stationed locations.

For that reason, answers to Questions 160856, 160857, 160859 and 160862 are based on the stationed location of Service personnel and not their location of residence; where personnel work is not necessarily where they live.
Personnel deployed on operations to an area away from their stationed location are shown against their most recent stationed location.

Royal Navy/Royal Marines personnel on sea service are included against the local authority containing the home port of their ship.

The answer to Question 160863 has been provided by Defence Business Services and is based on self-declared home address.

5 Wakefield is defined throughout as the Parliamentary Constituency of Wakefield.
6 Reserve personnel not attached to a regimental unit include non-regimental personnel in the Army Reserve Reinforcement Group (ARRG), appointments to headquarters of the other Armed Services, and university-based or training organisations.

7 Those on FTRS fill Service posts on a full-time basis while being a member of one of the Reserve services, either as an ex-Regular or as a volunteer.
In the case of the Army and the Naval Service, these will be posts that would ordinarily have been filled by Regular service personnel, in the case of the RAF, FTRS personnel also fill posts designated solely for them.

Imran Ahmad Khan MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA How many Armed Forces reservists in Wakefield have completed phase 2 training.

160859 As at 1 January 2021, there were an estimated 140 volunteer Reserve (FR20) personnel stationed in Wakefield who had passed Phase 2 training.
It should be noted that for Reserves, personnel are considered trained once Phase 1 training is complete.

There were 180 FR20 personnel stationed in Wakefield who had passed Phase 1 training as at 1 January 2021.

How many Armed Forces reservists have been recruited from Wakefield since January 2020.

160858 Fewer than five volunteer Reserve (FR20) personnel were recruited from Wakefield between 1 January and 31 December 2020.
Figures are for untrained personnel on intake, both Officers and Other Ranks and may include personnel who have joined more than once during the time period.

Personnel who transfer from another Service are excluded from these figures.
Note that figures for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force may exclude personnel who do not have a full UK postcode recorded in the Defence Recruiting System (DRS); this can include those that have a service record that cannot be cross-referenced to DRS and those who have not been transferred from Regular Service to the Reserves via DRS.

For the Army, around 30 percent of personnel have an unknown postcode.
This will include personnel who have entered from outside the United Kingdom, including from Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland.

Other known data quality issues contribute to the percentage of unknown postcodes.

how many people from Wakefield were recruited into the (a) British Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) Royal Air Force in 2020.

160861 20 Regular8 personnel were recruited into the British Army from Wakefield in the Financial Year 2019-20.
Figures for the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force are both fewer than five.

Figures are for untrained personnel on intake, both Officers and Other Ranks, and may include personnel who have joined more than once during the time period.

Note that figures for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force may exclude personnel who do not have a full UK postcode recorded in the DRS; this can include those that have a service record that cannot be cross- referenced to DRS.
What proportion of current Armed Forces personnel have been recruited from (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.

163321 Figures for the entire population of the Armed Forces are unavailable.

However, for the period between Financial Years 2014-15 and 2019-20 (inclusive), the following information is held: a) 0.2% of untrained Regular personnel with a known postcode at the time of recruitment were recruited from Wakefield (as a subset of West Yorkshire).
b) 3.3% of untrained Regular personnel with a known postcode at the time of recruitment were recruited from West Yorkshire.

Figures are for untrained personnel on intake, both Officers and Other Ranks and may include personnel who have joined more than once during the time period.

Note that figures for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force may exclude personnel who do not have a full UK postcode recorded in the DRS; this can include those that have a service record that cannot be cross- referenced to DRS.
8 UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel.

Unless otherwise stated, includes trained and untrained personnel.

A copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Yours sincerely, JAMES HEAPPEY MP