What is the percentage of personnel downgraded by service?

• 7% of UK Naval Service personnel were medically downgraded (MLD or MND) on a permanent basis;
• 11% of UK Army personnel were medically downgraded to (MLD or MND) on a permanent basis; and
• 6% of UK RAF personnel were medically downgraded to (MLD or MND) on a permanent basis.

Terms

• MFD = Medically Fully Deployable.
• MLD = Medically Limited Deployable.
• MND = Medically Not Deployable.
• MDS = Medical Deployability Standard.
• DMICP = A centralised data warehouse of coded information.
• JPA = Joint Personnel Administration is the intranet-based personnel administration system used by the British Armed Forces from April 2006 onwards, replacing the separate payment and administration teams from each of the three Services.

Tables 1 to 3 outline the number and percentage of personnel medically downgraded, by MDS and permanent downgrading status for each service, as at 01 December for each of the last 10 years (as recorded by JPA and DMICP).

Table 1: UK Armed Forces Naval Service Personnel Medically Downgraded, by MDS, permanent status and year, numbers and percentages: 01 December 2010 to 01 December 2019.

Year	All	MLD, All, No.	MLD, All, %	MLD, Perm, No.	MLD, Perm, %	MND, All, No.	MND, All, %	MND, Perm, No.	MND, Perm, %
2010	35,425	1,957	6	1,257	4	2,953	8	535	2
2011	34,460	1,826	5	1,233	4	2,804	8	469	1
2012	31,936	1,826	6	1,174	4	2,803	9	375	1
2013	30,667	1,758	6	1,147	4	2,751	9	329	1
2014	30,205	1,842	6	1,152	4	2,858	9	380	1
2015	29,736	1,915	6	1,154	4	2,871	10	338	1
2016	29,453	1,975	7	1,314	4	2,798	9	428	1
2017	29,297	2,063	7	1,500	5	2,755	9	497	2
2018	29,118	2,112	7	1,538	5	2,817	10	502	2
2019	28,923	2,158	7	1,539	5	2,934	10	523	2

Table 2: UK Armed Forces Army Personnel Medically Downgraded, by MDS, permanent status and year, numbers and percentages: 01 December 2010 to 01 December 2019.

Year	All	MLD, All, No.	MLD, All, %	MLD, Perm, No.	MLD, Perm, %	MND, All, No.	MND, All, %	MND, Perm, No.	MND, Perm, %
2010	102,030	15,243	15	9,248	9	6,801	7	1,999	2
2011	99,945	15,123	15	9,496	10	7,257	7	1,960	2
2012	96,510	13,081	14	8,787	9	8,061	8	1,969	2
2013	91,335	11,756	13	7,953	13	7,953	9	2,003	2
2014	84,186	10,228	12	6,679	8	8,356	10	1,822	2
2015	80,289	10,062	13	6,469	8	8,292	10	1,865	2
2016	79,027	9,998	13	6,729	9	8,062	10	2,120	3
2017	77,459	9,964	13	6,869	9	7,219	9	1,769	2
2018	76,027	9,808	13	6,816	9	6,632	9	1,609	2
2019	73,543	9,630	13	6,601	9	6,752	9	1,554	2

Table 3: UK Armed Forces RAF Personnel Medically Downgraded, by MDS, permanent status and year, numbers and percentages: 01 December 2010 to 01 December 2019.

Year	All	MLD, All, No.	MLD, All, %	MLD, Perm, No.	MLD, Perm, %	MND, All, No.	MND, All, %	MND, Perm, No.	MND, Perm, %
2011	39,039	1,644	4	8148	2	3,999	10	429	1
2012	36,435	1,495	4	806	2	3,745	10	421	2
2013	33,837	1,488	4	840	2	3,581	11	402	1
2014	32,249	1,409	4	811	3	3,456	11	388	1
2015	31,229	1,543	5	854	3	3,553	11	408	1
2016	30,867	1,756	6	946	3	3,368	11	459	1
2017	30,535	1,903	6	1,114	4	3,322	11	514	2
2018	29,975	2,064	7	1,190	4	3,469	12	530	2
2019	29,813	2,290	8	1,293	4	3,662	12	558	2

What where the top three (3) causes for medical downgrading?

As at 01 May 20193 (latest compiled data), for those medically downgraded, the top three (3) principal causes of medical downgrading in the UK Regular Armed Forces were:

• Musucloskeletal Disorders and Injuries (56%);
• Mental and Behavioural Disorders (13%); and
• Ear and Mastoid Process Diseases (5%).

A brief outline the medical downgrading process

Service personnel with medical conditions or fitness issues which affect their ability to perform their duties are assessed in Primary Care or referred to a Medical Board for a medical examination and review of their medical grading.

A medical downgrading occurs when personnel are assigned a MDS of MLD or MND. The patient may be downgraded to allow for treatment and rehabilitation:

• MLD:
  • Personnel medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations.
  • MLD personnel may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements.
• MND:
  • Personnel medically fit for duty with major employment limitations.
  • MND personnel are not fit to deploy on Operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week.

When a Medical Board awards a Joint Medical Employability Standard (JMES) including an MDS of MLD or MND, a decision is made as to whether the JMES is a temporary or permanent.

The maximum period of validity of a temporary JMES is 12 months. A permanent marker does not imply that the JMES can never change – it is intended to assist personnel staff involved with employment decisions by distinguishing the longer-term health problems from the relative short term ones.

Reference

FOI 2020/00248 dated 03 February 2020.