Latest news: Royal Navy redundancies

Following on from the RAF and Army earlier this month, around 1,020 Navy service personnel have been notified and selected for redundancy. 10/10/2011

The armed forces redundancy programme continues as 670 applicants and around 350 non-applicants will be made redundant to comply with changes announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review. With the applications process being an infamously staggered and drawn out process, many aspiring service men and women will have their applications terminated whilst existing personnel face job uncertainty. The Royal Navy hopes to reach a figure of around 30,000 regular service personnel by 2015.

As part of 22,000 armed forces cuts designed to help save £5billion, some 810 sailors applied for redundancy and 670 were accepted.

Around a third of the required reduction in numbers will come from employees leaving in normal course and reducing recruitment figures. The rest in the short term will have to be through compulsory redundancies.

Every person selected for redundancy will be supported via the divisional system and will be provided with a comprehensive resettlement package to help them prepare for civilian life.

There are a number of people who have been notified of their redundancy whilst serving overseas. Arrangements are being made for them to return home to the UK with enough time to begin the resettlement process.

A certain level of ‘churn’ is being expected as personnel move between units and a further three rounds of redundancy are planned for delivery before April 2015.