UK Armed Forces at 96.5% Manning

, The publication today of the Ministry of Defence's latest Armed Forces manning figures show that the UK Armed Forces are currently at 96.5% Full Time Trained Strength. 
 
As at 1 October 2006, the Full Time Trained Strength of the UK Armed Forces was 179,420 against a target of 185,750. This comprises 174,590 UK Regular Forces, 1,560 Full Time Reserve Service personnel and 3,280 Gurkhas. There were also 18,400 untrained UK Regulars and 310 untrained Gurkhas. 
 
Equal Opportunities 
 
Since 1 October 2005, the proportion of females in the UK Regular Forces has risen 0.5 percentage points to 11.5% for officers and a rise of 0.1 percentage point to 8.8% for Other Ranks. 
 
The percentage of UK Regular Forces from ethnic minority backgrounds continues to rise; at 1 October 2006 ethnic minorities accounted for 5.7 % compared to 5.4 % at 1 October 2005. 
 
Due to the introduction of a new Personnel Administration System for RAF and RN, all RAF and RN data from the 1st April 2006 are provisional and subject to review.  
 
Background Information  
 
1. All figures and percentages exclude the Home Service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment and Reservists mobilised for service. Due to the rounding methods used totals may not always equal the sum of the parts. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. Historic figures in this publication have also been rounded. 
 
2. Figures for Ethnic Minorities are not rounded but full coverage estimates are as they are based on the number of ethnic minorities that would be expected if ethnicity were known for all personnel. Actual figures are used in the calculation of percentages. 
 
3. The full quarterly statistics (National Office of Statistics TSP4) are available on the DASA website at http://www.dasa.mod.uk. The statistics are published in accordance with the standards set out by the Office of National Statistics.