§ 2.37 p.m.
§ LORD AMULREEMy Lords, I beg to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of pilots entering the air branch of the Royal Navy since the start of the re-entry scheme for pilots in 1951 have been re-entries; and does the Royal Navy expect these re-entry pilots to perform all or any flying duties when in their previous service they were employed exclusively or principally on one type of flying.]
§ THE EARL OF BIRKENHEADMy Lords, I am very glad the noble Lord Lord Amulree, has raised this Question. Pilots who have been granted short-service commissions under the re-entry scheme represent about 33 per cent. of the total numbers entered for, or transferred to, pilot duties in the Royal Navy since the re-entry scheme started. In arriving at this figure, those men who train and qualify as pilots in the Royal Navy during their full-time period of National Service have been excluded, except in so far as they have subsequently been granted a short-service commission. It includes, however, those officers who re-engaged immediately following earlier service. Those who came back to the Royal Navy after an appreciable break in their service comprise 26 per cent. of the total.
440 In general, it has been the practice in the Royal Navy to return each re-entered officer to the type of duty for which he had been trained and on which he was employed during his previous service; that is fighter, strike, or anti-submarine. If, however, it is found during the period of refresher training which is given to all re-entered officers, that a pilot has become unsuitable for the duty for which he was originally trained, he is given alternative employment more suitable to his present ability. Inevitably some reentered fighter pilots were found, owing to age, to be unable to stand the physical strain of high speed flight manœuvres, but the majority of these are now giving good service in anti-submarine squadrons. A very limited number have been placed in second line squadrons that is, on non-operational duties.
§ LORD AMULREEMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Earl for the full and informative reply that he has given to my Question.
I now beg to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of re-entry pilots employed during former service principally on non-fighter duties and during present service in fighter or all-purpose squadrons have undergone Central Air Medical Board examination for psychological defects or have been stood off flying as "not up to standard," and in what way have these two groups been disposed of.]
§ THE EARL OF BIRKENHEADMy Lords, in reply to the noble Lord's second Question, of those naval re-entry pilots who, during their former service, were not employed on operational fighter duties but have served during their re-entry service in fighter squadrons, one was referred to the Central Air Medical Board on psychological grounds. The case occurred during refresher operational training, to which I have already referred, and the officer's commission was terminated and he left the Service. There was also one case of a pilot in this group being stood off flying; in this instance, defective eyesight and other medical reasons were the cause. This pilot was transferred to ground duties as an air traffic control officer.
§ LORD AMULREEMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Earl once more for his full reply to my Question.
§ THE EARL OF BIRKENHEADMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord.