To ask Her Majesty’s Government what active service each of the 47 senior officers of the ranks of Vice-Admiral, Lieutenant-General, Air Marshal and above have been involved in. [HL1017]

All officers that reach the ranks of Vice-Admiral, Lieutenant-General, Air Marshal and above have undertaken a number of challenging, demanding and varied roles both within an operational environment and in direct support of it.

In addition, all will have undertaken postgraduate training through the Defence Academy and will have attended the advanced staff course. Furthermore, many will have also attended the Royal College of Defence Studies, involving close engagement with current international issues. To determine which training each officer received would require a manual search of personal records incurring a disproportionate cost.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many senior officers of the ranks of Vice-Admiral, Lieutenant-General, Air Marshal and above there were in (a) 1945, (b) 1960, (c) 1970, (d) 1980 and (e) 1990. [HL1022]

Information on the number of Vice-Admirals, Lieutenant-Generals, Air Marshals and above for the years requested is not held as a management information system report. The following table has been reproduced from entries made in the Navy List, the Army List and the Air Force List for the respective years.