PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Armed Forces: Muslims (9 November 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of British-born Muslims who applied to the armed forces (a) successfully completed their training and (b) served in the (i) British Army, (ii) Royal Air Force, (iii) Royal Navy and (iv) Royal Marines in each year since 2016.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

Defence is dedicated to achieving a more diverse workforce and is undertaking a wide range of activities to increase the number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) recruits into the Armed Forces, including through better understanding and greater engagement with BAME communities, reviewing recruitment processes; and better targeted marketing and communications towards potential BAME applicants. The Armed Forces set a target for 2020 that 10 per cent of recruits should be BAME; in the 12 months to 31 March 2020, 11.7 per cent of total intake into the combined UK Regular Forces and Future Reserves 2020 were BAME.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes biannual statistics on diversity declarations for Armed Forces personnel. The latest edition can be found at the following link and provides a detailed breakdown of the strength of the Armed Forces, including by self-declared religion, in each of the requested years:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-index. However, it will take time for officials to collate the requested detailed information and I will write to the hon. Member in due course.

Answered by:
James Heappey (Conservative)
12 November 2020