Army Recruitment (Hansard, 3 February 1997)

§ Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what languages, apart from English, are used in connection with publicity material for recruitment to the armed forces; and if he will make a statement. [13865]

§ Mr. Soames
Apart from English, recruiting publicity material is printed in Bengali, Gujerati, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Welsh.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current officer recruiting deficit expressed as a percentage. [13498]
485W

§ Mr. Soames
The armed forces are currently 166 officers short of the financial year 1996–97 recruiting target; this represents a deficit of 10 per cent.

§ Dr. Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when his Department estimates that the Army will reach its full manning requirement. [13496]

§ Mr. Soames
The Department is currently considering additional measures to further improve recruitment and retention and restore the Army to full manning over the next few years.