§ Mr. Richard Pageasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces have bought themselves out in each of the
Royal Navy/Royal Marines Army Royal Air Force 1971–72 … … … 1,917 4,402 863 1972–73 … … … 2,448 4,485 1,312 1973–74 … … … 1,805 5,278 1,538 1974–75 … … … 2,258 5,974 1,357 1975–76 … … … 1,526 4,121 1,032 1976–77 … … … 984 3,658 1,157 1977–78(April-December) … … … 539 3,712 1,000 The Services handle applications for premature voluntary release in different ways. For instance, in the Army, applications are initially dealt with locally. It is therefore not possible to provide comparable figures for the number of outstanding applications.