At 1st October 2022, the MOD reported the Trained Strength of the Reserve Forces at 31,030 reservists. This is an overall decrease of 1,040 reservists in 12 months, driven by a decrease of 34% of new joiners and an increase of 6% leaving the Reserve Forces in the same period.
There are approximately 1,840 reservists in East Anglia. These reservists train out of any one of our 14 Army Reserve Centres in roles as diverse as field medics, Apache helicopter ground crew, transport drivers, military intelligence or security, to name a few. For comparison, there are 13,800 Regular Armed Forces personnel in East Anglia.
The source of this data, the Quarterly Service personnel statistics, still refers to the Trained Strength targets from the £1.85bn Future Reserves 2020 programme. This programme has now been completed and the subsequent Reserve Forces 2030 (RF30) Review does not include a new target for the Reserves although the Regular Army will reduce from 82,000 to 73,000 by 2025.
The RF30 Review made 18 recommendations to the MOD, grouped into four key areas, outlining how the Reserve Forces must evolve. These are: redefining the Reserves’ relationship with society; expanding the role of the Reserves; unlocking the potential of reservists; and transforming support to the Reserves.
As part of the RF30 review, selected RFCA staff and members were consulted, including: RFCA External Scrutiny Team, Chief Executives of Wessex RFCA and South East RFCA. The recommendations from the RFCA External Scrutiny Team’s annual reports from 2016 and 2019 were also referenced in the RF30 Review.