Recruitment

HC Deb 21 May 1980 vol 985 cc232-3W

Mr. Allan Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what are the six-monthly figures of youth recruitment into the Armed Forces nationally and by region for the periods from January 1975 to the latest available date.

Mr. Pattie

The information is not recorded in the form requested and could not be provided except at disproportionate cost and effort. Some information is available for United Kingdom Service men only and is given in the tables below.

TABLE 1
RECRUITMENT OF UNITED KINGDOM SERVICE MEN BY AGE ON ENTRY
percentage
Age last birthday	1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80
16	…	…	…	…	…	39.6	41.6	40.5	38.9	38.6
17	…	…	…	…	…	25.2	25.1	27.7	29.5	25.7
18	…	…	…	…	…	12.4	12.6	12.9	13.3	13.1
19	…	…	…	…	…	6.9	7.0	7.2	6.6	7.7
20 and over	…	…	…	15.9	13.7	11.7	11.7	14.9

TABLE 2
RECRUITMENT OF UNITED KINGDOM SERVICE MEN BY COUNTY AND STANDARD REGION
					1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80
Total	…	…	…	…	39,804	34,383	32,231	36,664	43,659
England	…	…	…	…	31,877	27,568	26,507	29,878	35,681
Scotland	…	…	…	…	3,983	3,641	3,319	3,856	4,707
Wales	…	…	…	…	2,217	1,911	1,763	2,133	2,431
Northern Ireland	…	…	…	764	680	741	605	759
Overseas and net adjustments	…	963	583	–99	192	81
English Regions
North	…	…	…	…	2,907	2,532	2,443	2,726	3,417
Yorkshire and Humberside	…	4,059	3,427	3,312	3,536	4,209
East Midlands	…	…	…	2,934	2,486	2,574	2,722	3,210
East Anglia	…	…	…	1,283	1,162	1,097	1,243	1,548
South East (including London)	…	7,984	7,388	6,917	7,663	8,760
SouthWest	…	…	…	3,642	3,158	3,152	3,703	4,212
West Midlands	…	…	…	3,722	2,880	2,724	3,163	4,162
NorthWest	…	…	…	5,346	4,535	4,288	5,123	6,163

Notes to Table 2:

(a) " Overseas " represents the sons of Service men who enlist at an overseas location, where their parents are stationed. These, together with certain re-entrants are not included with regional figures.

(b) Regional statistics are collected by a separate procedure from the total recruitment figures. Differences, appearing in the Table as net adjustments, may be caused by the time elapsing between recording enlistment at a regional office and the date the Service man reports for duty and is included in the official recruiting figures.