§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the roles which servicemen aged 16 and 17 are not eligible to perform, by service. [81238]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonService personnel who are on the trained strength are fully employable within the limits of their training, their rank or rating. Personnel aged under 17 are not deployed operationally, nor do they undertake operational patrols in Northern Ireland. Personnel aged under 18 are not deployed on UN peacekeeping operations in line with UN policy on the matter, although should a Royal Navy unit already serving overseas deploy at short notice on peacekeeping duties, it might contain a small number of personnel aged under 18.
§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many enlisted 16 and 17 year olds there are in each service. [81241]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonAt 1 March 1999, the numbers of 16 and 17 year old personnel serving in the UK Regular Armed Forces can be broken down as follows:
Age Total Naval Services Army Royal Air Force 16 1,559 253 1,235 71 17 5,069 776 3,914 379 Total 6,628 1,029 5,149 450
§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his policy towards the recruitment of under 18 year olds to the Armed Forces. [81239]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonI refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) on 16 March 1999,Official Report, column 571.
§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many 16 and 17 year old servicemen are currently deployed overseas, by (i) service and (ii) theatre; and how many have been removed from their unit on its current deployment. [81236]
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§ Mr. Doug HendersonThe details of Service personnel deployed overseas, by Service, are as follows
Naval Service. No Royal Navy personnel aged 16 are presently deployed overseas. There are 53 Royal Navy personnel (including seven women) aged 17 deployed overseas with the Fleet. Their locations are as follows:
- Adriatic: 21
- Far East: 4
- Gulf: 6
- Mediterranean: 15
- South Atlantic: 3
- West Indies: 4.
There are no 16 or 17-year-old Royal Marine personnel serving overseas.
Army. As at 1 March 1999, no Army personnel aged 16 were deployed overseas. Some 133 personnel aged 17 were deployed overseas as follows:
- Botswana: 1
- Belize: 4
- Canada: 2
- Cyprus: 16
- Gibraltar: 4
- Kenya: 18
- American Territories: 1
- Germany: 56
- USA: 9
- Former Yugoslavia: 22
Royal Air Force. As at 1 March 1999, no Service personnel aged 16 were deployed overseas. One 17-year-old was serving in Saudi Arabia.There is no record of personnel having been removed from their unit prior to its current deployment.