Employment: Defence

Lindsay Roy
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what percentage of the population is directly employed in defence and related industries.

Kevin Brennan
[holding answer 27 April 2009]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated May 2009:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what percentage of the population are directly employed in Defence and related industries. (271248)

Statistics on Ministry of Defence (MOD) personnel are published by Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA). These indicate that there were a total of around 274,000 service and civilian personnel as at 1 April 2008 who were UK residents.

DASA also publishes estimates of UK employment directly dependent on MOD expenditure and defence exports (other than its service and civilian personnel). This includes employment in the manufacture of weapons, shipbuilding etc. It is estimated that 160,000 full-time jobs were supported on this basis, on average, during the 2006- 07 financial year, the latest period for which estimates are available. A headcount equivalent of this figure is not available.

Taken together, the latest estimates of service and civilian personnel and of jobs dependent on MOD expenditure indicate that, approximately, 1 per cent of the UK resident population aged 16 and over is directly employed in Defence and related industries.