To ask Her Majesty's Government how many servicemen and servicewomen are currently unable to deploy on combat operations because they cannot meet the required medical standard.
Answered on
12 February 2018
There are three Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) categories for the Armed Forces.
Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) personnel are those medically fit for duty with no employment limitations.
Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) personnel are medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. MLD personnel may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements.
Medically Not Deployable (MND) personnel are medically fit for duty with major employment limitations. MND personnel are not currently deployable on Operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. MND status, as with other MDS categories, is often only temporary due to injury or illness, and may change following medical review.
As at 1 October 2017, there were 137,280 full-time trained UK Armed Forces personnel, of whom 110,036 (80.2%) were MFD.
13,989* (10.2%) were MLD, of whom 4,370 (31.2%) were MLD Temporary.
13,223* (9.6%) were MND, of whom 10,329 (78.1%) were MND Temporary.
*subject to regrading following medical review