The table below shows the number of Commonwealth citizens serving in our Armed Forces as at 1 October 2018:

The 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the Regular forces represent 3.3% of the Regular trained strength. The 210 Commonwealth citizens in the FR20 Reserves represent 0.65% of the FR20 Reserve trained strength.

Notes:

• Figures for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and Royal Air Force are for the Trained Regular Population and Trained FR20 population. Army figures are for Trade Trained Regular population, and Trained FR20 population.

• Nationality is as reported on the Joint Personnel Administration system upon intake.

• Figures are rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards.

To be eligible to join the British Armed Forces an individual must be a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen, either as a sole or dual national. As Fiji is a member of the Commonwealth, its citizens are eligible to apply to join. There is no recruitment process specifically for Fijian nationals. All British, Irish and Commonwealth nationals are required to make an online application and, if successful, will then go through the recruitment and selection assessment process in the UK for the Service they are applying to join.

Information held by the Ministry of Defence on the numbers of Regular personnel who reported a Fijian nationality on joining the British Armed Forces in each Financial Year (FY) since 1998-99 is provided in the following table.

Number of Regular personnel reporting a Fijian nationality on intake to the British Armed Forces (FYs 1998-99 to 2017-18)

Notes:

1. Nationality is not part of the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and RAF legacy datasets (data held prior to the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration System) and as such figures for these Services are included only from 2007-08 for Royal Navy/Royal Marines and 2006-07 for RAF.

2. The declaration rate for nationality on intake for FY 2017-18 is 99.1%. Some personnel will declare their nationality after intake; figures in this table show nationality declared at intake.

3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. ‘~’ indicates a number less than 5. ‘-‘ indicates zero.

To be eligible to join the British Armed Forces an individual must be a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen, either as a sole or dual national. As Fiji is a member of the Commonwealth, its citizens are eligible to apply to join. There is no recruitment process specifically for Fijian nationals. All British, Irish and Commonwealth nationals are required to make an online application and, if successful, will then go through the recruitment and selection assessment process in the UK for the Service they are applying to join.

Information held by the Ministry of Defence on the numbers of Regular personnel who reported a Fijian nationality on joining the British Armed Forces in each Financial Year (FY) since 1998-99 is provided in the following table.

Number of Regular personnel reporting a Fijian nationality on intake to the British Armed Forces (FYs 1998-99 to 2017-18)

Notes:

1. Nationality is not part of the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and RAF legacy datasets (data held prior to the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration System) and as such figures for these Services are included only from 2007-08 for Royal Navy/Royal Marines and 2006-07 for RAF.

2. The declaration rate for nationality on intake for FY 2017-18 is 99.1%. Some personnel will declare their nationality after intake; figures in this table show nationality declared at intake.

3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. ‘~’ indicates a number less than 5. ‘-‘ indicates zero.

There is a long tradition of Commonwealth citizens serving in the British Armed Forces, and we continue to value their service which provides an important contribution in defending the UK at home and abroad.

The table below shows the numbers of Commonwealth citizens serving in our Armed Forces as at 1 April 2018:

The 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the Regular forces represent 3.4% of the Regular trained strength. The 210 Commonwealth citizens in the FR20 Reserves represent 0.7% of the FR20 Reserve trained strength.

Notes:

• Figures for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and Royal Air Force are for the Trained Regular Population and Trained FR20 population. Army figures are for Trade Trained Regular population, and Trained FR20 population.
• Nationality is as reported on the Joint Personnel Administration system
• Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

We keep our recruitment policies under constant review, and should there be any future changes in relation to applications from the Commonwealth these will be made clear on the single Service websites.

There is a long tradition of Commonwealth citizens serving in the British Armed Forces, and we continue to value their service which provides an important contribution in defending the UK at home and abroad.

The table below shows the numbers of Commonwealth citizens serving in our Armed Forces as at 1 April 2018:

The 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the Regular forces represent 3.4% of the Regular trained strength. The 210 Commonwealth citizens in the FR20 Reserves represent 0.7% of the FR20 Reserve trained strength.

Notes:

• Figures for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and Royal Air Force are for the Trained Regular Population and Trained FR20 population. Army figures are for Trade Trained Regular population, and Trained FR20 population.
• Nationality is as reported on the Joint Personnel Administration system
• Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

We keep our recruitment policies under constant review, and should there be any future changes in relation to applications from the Commonwealth these will be made clear on the single Service websites.

Defence has a long and proud tradition of training overseas military and civilian personnel at its training establishments throughout the UK and this is an essential ingredient of Defence Engagement. Training establishments such as Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) offer international students prestigious courses which remain highly prized. Courses currently undertaken by foreign nationals are the Commissioning Course, the Army Reserve Commissioning Course, the Professionally Qualified Officer Course and the International Trainer Development Course.

These courses expose international partners to UK policy, and promote concepts of accountability, human rights and transparency. They are important in building skills which enable other countries to deal appropriately with their own internal problems, thereby contributing to regional security. The courses are paid for by a combination of self and UK funding. Information on the number of foreign nations in receipt of training at RMAS is provided in the attached table.

Defence has a long and proud tradition of training overseas military and civilian personnel at its training establishments throughout the UK and this is an essential ingredient of Defence Engagement. Training establishments such as Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) offer international students prestigious courses which remain highly prized. Courses currently undertaken by foreign nationals are the Commissioning Course, the Army Reserve Commissioning Course, the Professionally Qualified Officer Course and the International Trainer Development Course.

These courses expose international partners to UK policy, and promote concepts of accountability, human rights and transparency. They are important in building skills which enable other countries to deal appropriately with their own internal problems, thereby contributing to regional security. The courses are paid for by a combination of self and UK funding. Information on the number of foreign nations in receipt of training at RMAS is provided in the attached table.

Defence has a long and proud tradition of training overseas military and civilian personnel at its training establishments throughout the UK and this is an essential ingredient of Defence Engagement. Training establishments such as Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) offer international students prestigious courses which remain highly prized. Courses currently undertaken by foreign nationals are the Commissioning Course, the Army Reserve Commissioning Course, the Professionally Qualified Officer Course and the International Trainer Development Course.

These courses expose international partners to UK policy, and promote concepts of accountability, human rights and transparency. They are important in building skills which enable other countries to deal appropriately with their own internal problems, thereby contributing to regional security. The courses are paid for by a combination of self and UK funding. Information on the number of foreign nations in receipt of training at RMAS is provided in the attached table.

Defence has a long and proud tradition of training overseas military and civilian personnel at its training establishments throughout the UK and this is an essential ingredient of Defence Engagement. Training establishments such as Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) offer international students prestigious courses which remain highly prized. Courses currently undertaken by foreign nationals are the Commissioning Course, the Army Reserve Commissioning Course, the Professionally Qualified Officer Course and the International Trainer Development Course.

These courses expose international partners to UK policy, and promote concepts of accountability, human rights and transparency. They are important in building skills which enable other countries to deal appropriately with their own internal problems, thereby contributing to regional security. The courses are paid for by a combination of self and UK funding. Information on the number of foreign nations in receipt of training at RMAS is provided in the attached table.

The Department does not hold this information. Although the Health and Social Care Information Centre collects hospital episode statistics these do not contain information about the patient’s residency, nationality or migration status.

However, in published research commissioned by the Department it was estimated that on average there are 2.5 million visitors and migrants in England at any point in time. The cost of treating all visitors and migrants is estimated to be around £2 billion per year.

The Department is not able to make a reliable estimate of the extra costs to the National Health Service budget of net immigration between 2001 and 2011, since the NHS does not hold or collate data on costs based on a person’s nationality or immigration status.

In 2013, the Department commissioned a quantitative report to better understand the extent of the use of the NHS by migrants and visitors to support the consultation Sustaining services, ensuring fairness: A consultation on migrant access and their financial contribution to NHS provision in England. The report “Quantitative Assessment of Visitor and Migrant Use of the NHS in England. Exploring the Data.” estimates the total cost of visitors and temporary migrants’ normal use of NHS services to be £1.8 billion per year. This is the total gross cost and currently only a proportion of this is chargeable (approximately £460 million). Only some secondary care services are chargeable to non-European Economic Area individuals, and services for emergency care and public health reasons are exempt for all visitors and migrants, in addition to exemptions for different groups of individuals. This is an estimate for visitors and temporary migrants coming to England and does not account for the saving from individuals who migrate from the United Kingdom.

Clause 33 of the Immigration Bill gives provision for the introduction of the health surcharge on individuals subject to immigration control. We anticipate that this surcharge will be introduced for individuals seeking leave to enter or remain on visas of between six months and five years' duration.

The Department is working closely with the Home Office to ensure that information on the individuals who have paid the health surcharge is easily available to providers of National Health Service healthcare. An individual having paid the health surcharge will then generally be entitled to access all NHS services free at the point of delivery as per any United Kingdom or European Economic Area national resident here. Eligibility will be demonstrated by the possession of a biometric residence permit and an automatically-created NHS record, which will identify that the individual has paid the surcharge and therefore is not to be subject to further charges, except where a resident pays charges.

The additional administrative burden on the NHS of identifying those who have paid the surcharge, and thus of verifying their entitlement to healthcare which is free at the point of delivery, should be minimal. The Department is working with the Health and Social Care Information Centre to include new data fields on the NHS Spine that will be populated with an individual's immigration status and surcharge validity automatically.

The Department will be publishing a costed implementation plan for the NHS Cost Recovery Programme soon.

The independent report on overseas visitors’ and migrants’ use of the National Health Service estimates that there is a cost of between £70 million and £300 million attributable solely to so-called health tourists—people who deliberately travel to England to get free NHS treatment that they are not entitled to. The report estimates the total cost of overseas visitors and temporary migrants accessing NHS services, including, amongst others, health tourists and those who are entitled to free NHS care, to be between £1.9 billion and £2 billion.

The Government's consultation, Sustaining services, ensuring fairness is coordinated with a second consultation, Controlling Immigration—Regulating Migrant Access to Health Services in the UK. The latter consultation seeks views on a proposal that all those who are coming to the United Kingdom for more than six months from outside of the European Economic Area be required either to pay a health levy or hold mandatory health insurance. The consultation also seeks views on whether there should be any exceptions to this requirement.

Both consultations have already been placed in the Library.

The consultation seeks views on proposals to develop a system whereby all patients, regardless of their nationality, who are newly registering with the National Health Service for first time, are assessed for eligibility to free NHS care, which will include providing relevant information that will allow the Government to reclaim money it is entitled to from other European Economic Area (EEA) Member States such as European Health Insurance Card details. In particular, as set out in the consultation, we propose to develop a more robust process for identifying newly arriving EEA state pensioners and capturing their details which facilitate funding to the United Kingdom from their member state. However, where this data is available for those EEA pensioners already residing here it will also be used in this way.

The consultation also proposes to charge those non-EEA nationals coming to the UK to live who do not yet have permission to do so permanently either by applying a health levy to their visa application or by requiring them to have health insurance. Currently such people are entitled to free NHS care. It may not be fair to begin to charge those temporary migrants already living here who came here on the understanding that their healthcare will be free, but a final decision on that point has not been taken.

The consultation seeks views on proposals to develop a system whereby all patients, regardless of their nationality, who are newly registering with the National Health Service for first time, are assessed for eligibility to free NHS care, which will include providing relevant information that will allow the Government to reclaim money it is entitled to from other European Economic Area (EEA) Member States such as European Health Insurance Card details. In particular, as set out in the consultation, we propose to develop a more robust process for identifying newly arriving EEA state pensioners and capturing their details which facilitate funding to the United Kingdom from their member state. However, where this data is available for those EEA pensioners already residing here it will also be used in this way.

The consultation also proposes to charge those non-EEA nationals coming to the UK to live who do not yet have permission to do so permanently either by applying a health levy to their visa application or by requiring them to have health insurance. Currently such people are entitled to free NHS care. It may not be fair to begin to charge those temporary migrants already living here who came here on the understanding that their healthcare will be free, but a final decision on that point has not been taken.

The Government has made no assessment of any estimate reportedly made by the Chair of the Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

The Government is consulting on proposals to amend the current rules and procedures for charging visitors and migrants for National Health Service care. These proposals include extending charges to primary care and identifying chargeable patients at the point that they first register with a general practitioner practice to allow the NHS to apply charges to them whenever they subsequently access hospital or other NHS services.

Views are also being sought on proposals to ensure temporary migrants from outside the European Economic Area make a financial contribution to the NHS, including the option of requiring those coming to stay for more than six months to pay a health levy to be collected by the Home Office alongside visa and immigration application fees.

Consultations published by the Department and the Home Office are examining the costs and benefits of these proposals to develop an impact assessment, whilst the Department has commissioned some independent professional research to better understand the extent of the use, and abuse, of the NHS by migrants and visitors, which will also inform the impact assessment.