Recommendation 23

The Department plans to make substantial reductions to its military and civilian workforces over the next 10 years. These include reducing the Army from 82,000 to 73,000; other savings equivalent to reducing trained military workforce by 6,350 (and their untrained workforce by 1,450) by 2030; and a 10% further reduction in the cost of the civilian workforce by 2024–25. As reported by the NAO report, the targets are already harder than expected as the uncertain economic outlook of the past two years caused by the pandemic has meant that fewer personnel have left the armed forces than normal.50 But the Department told us that the military reduction plans are now relatively mature, and the civilian reductions are broadly deliverable.51