Commonwealth citizens[1] have a long and distinguished history of service to this country, including during the second world war, which helped us to secure victory in Europe and victory over Japan, the 80th anniversaries of which we are commemorating this year. Today, citizens of over 40 Commonwealth countries are serving in our armed forces and play a vital role in the defence of the UK both here and overseas, bringing with them a diverse range of skills and different perspectives to planning and decision making. We hope they will continue to do so in the future, and we will continue to welcome Commonwealth personnel to join the armed forces.
As we set out in the strategic defence review, we are in a new era of threat, which demands a new era for UK defence that will make Britain safer—secure at home and strong abroad. It signifies a landmark shift in our deterrence and defence, in which we move to warfighting readiness to deter threats and strengthen security in the Euro Atlantic. As the UK steps up to take on more responsibility for European security, we must have a “NATO first” defence policy and lead within the alliance. The UK will become the leading edge of innovation in NATO.
The operational effectiveness of our armed forces is central to this. We must therefore continue to bear in mind the importance of ensuring that the armed forces continue to be representative of the UK. We also need to ensure that we do not become overly reliant on personnel whose country of origin (citizenship) may object to where we need to deploy them.
As a result, in November 2018[2], the MOD set a maximum limit of up to 1,350 Commonwealth citizens who can be recruited each year into our armed forces, and since February 2009[3], the Army has had an upper limit of 15% on the number of Commonwealth personnel serving in each of its cap badges. That applied originally to just three (the Royal Logistic Corps, the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps and the Royal Army Dental Corps), but this was extended to all remaining cap badges from November 2018. Until now, this has been applied to the trained strength—those who have completed basic training.
However, we need to balance this approach against the need to maximise opportunities to serve for those Commonwealth citizens who wish to do so. I would therefore like to inform the House of an amendment to the way in which the 15% will be applied. Going forward, the upper limit of 15% will be determined by reference to the structure of the cap badge, and not the trained strength. Changing the way the 15% limit is applied will ensure that more roles will be available for Commonwealth personnel, including those who wish to transfer from one cap badge to another, thus helping to support efforts to retain additional people in our armed forces, while remaining within the overall annual limit of 1,000 new Commonwealth entrants in the Army.
[1] “Commonwealth citizen” means anyone who is a Commonwealth citizen within the meaning of section 37(1 )(b) of the British Nationality Act 1981; a Commonwealth citizen is defined in section 37(1 )(b) of the British Nationality Act 1981 as including every person who under any enactment for the time being in force in any country mentioned in schedule 3 is a citizen of that country. Schedule 3 to the 1981 Act lists the current member countries of the Commonwealth other than the UK.
[HCWS707]