Musculoskeletal injuries and mental health conditions were the leading medical reasons preventing UK armed forces personnel from being deployed in the past year, according to new data released by the Ministry of Defence.
Responding to a written parliamentary question from Helen Maguire MP, Minister for Veterans and People Louise Sandher-Jones provided figures showing that as of 1 September 2025, there were 13,113 service personnel classified as Medically Not Deployable (MND). Of these, 12,399 had conditions coded under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) system.
Musculoskeletal disorders and injuries accounted for 43% of cases, while mental and behavioural disorders made up 22%, according to the data. Other significant categories included factors influencing health status (7%), ill-defined clinical and laboratory findings (4%), and digestive system disorders (3%).
Smaller proportions of non-deployable personnel were affected by conditions related to the ear and mastoid process, circulatory system, neoplasms, metabolic and endocrine disorders, and nervous system issues. Conditions such as respiratory, skin, and genitourinary diseases each represented around 1% or less of cases.
The data also showed that 321 cases could not be coded under ICD-10, and 393 had no medical board information available.
The Ministry of Defence explained that personnel classified as Medically Not Deployable are deemed unfit for operational deployment but may still participate in UK-based exercises. The department noted that some of those listed as MND on the reporting date “may not have been scheduled to deploy and the medical condition may not have prevented deployment.”
The figures cover all full-time trained Royal Navy and RAF personnel and trade-trained Army personnel serving against requirement as of September 2025.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the medical downgrading data was compiled from the Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP) and converted into ICD-10 codes for reporting purposes. The department added that the “clinical and laboratory findings” category includes symptoms such as irregular heartbeat or abdominal pain that may lack a formal diagnosis.
Talking of HMG being economical with the truth, or massaging the figures, or MoD seemingly being sloppy or having no idea what it owns, I hope we get an article on the latest forces equipment figures, just released.
The jewel in the crown of which is that we now seems to have an expanded fleet of 288 Challanger II Tanks.
Quite a few found down the back of the sofa apparently.
Well I’ve just in the last month had some FOIs from the RAF.
Apparently as of mid July this year they had typhoons 124 allocated to squadrons + an amount in the sustainment fleet they would not discuss for security reasons..of those are allocated to squadrons..118 were FGR4.. I got another FOI this last month listening 152 aircraft and the exact flight hours they have each undertaken..
Which is bonkers considering the HMG have stated as of April they had removed all the tranch 1s apart from 4 from service.. leaving a total of 96 tranche 2-3 FGR4s and 4 tranche one….
Arse and elbows or someone is lying to someone.
Standard. The sooner sites like this expose this crap the better.
I asked several FOIA requests regards Strategic Command and the reorg some of that Commands organisations have carried out, reportedly, as nothing is available online.
Refused point blank to answer, even about a reorg. The Orgs are to be fair Cyber and Intel related, yet previously they at least acknowledged that they existed.
The veil of secrecy is there to hide not only secrets that need to be kept, but their own actions.
The sooner the public are aware of this the better.
Yep indeed because 10 years ago the RAF were happy to release exactly which tail numbers were in each squadron as well as which were in the sustainment fleets.. now they will not say and just publish a big lump saying it’s all in squadrons that includes aircraft we know are scrapped.
It’s hiding the truth pure and simple.. that discussion we had around corruption and the fact nobody wants the truth.. the problem is we are a democracy and they all serve HMG and are part of HMG which is itself directly accountable to the electorate.. and its the duty of government to allow that electorate to decide if its been competent or incompetent.. with that we are not a functioning democracy and we will end up falling to political warfare from within and without.. a democracy can only work if those with suffrage have the information to make an informed decision on voting and if they trust they are being given the information….if they are just being feed crap we are in Trouble..Just take boris he was a popular man and personally I thought ( apart from being slow early in Covid and a bit to showman) was a not that bad a PM.. but as soon as people thought he was being dishonest his government fell like that.. what will happen when the UK is tested in war and our infrastructure starts collapsing to missile attack we cannot defend against and cannot really effectively answer directly or when China starts a maritime war in the indo pacific and Indian Ocean and the ships full of the stuff we are addicted to stop…when the public realise they were feed a decades long fantasy of safety..the public will throw a huge paddy and the government will fall just at the point of greatest danger.. what happens after I’m not sure.. but when you read the Chinese paradigm of war and why they thing they would in the end win against the US it’s exactly that.. China feels the US public live a fantasy of safety and wealth that cannot be impacted on for any reason and if that can be crushed they will rip their government apart and do chinas job for them..
Get back to 16 men rooms.
That will sort out the mental cases.
It sort of worked for me.
I wonder if there were too many mental health issues during World War 2?
Please, that’s such an unkind and cruel question to ask, a real pub banter level lazy observation, doubtless made with a little shrug, a smirk, and no idea. My father’s mental health was wrecked at D-Day by seeing dozens of his unit killed in a counter attack, and living on the beach surrounded by hundreds of corpses and the ever present smell of burning human flesh as the mobile incinerator did its work. Nonetheless he fought on, and like so many others he paid the price later. Don’t ever, ever make that kind of vapid and inane comment again; serving in peacetime is hard (ask a submariner) and fighting is harder; both have consequences. Tou should feel ashamed.
I apologise for upsetting you. My comments, although badly worded on balance, were more of a comment on what men faced up too during World War 2. I losy two family members, one in the North Sea and the other at Casino. My own father spent the war in the Atlantic and in the Arctic on HMS Stork and then HMS Starling, both Black Swan sloops. He didn’t talk about it much but he did tell me some later on. It was like something out of The Cruel Sea and worse.