§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Defence what steps are necessary in order to collect information about the number of serving officers who hold university degrees in science subjects.
§ Dr. GilbertInformation of this kind could be provided for the Navy and Army only following a systematic search of personnel records and a special computer exercise, respectively. In the case of the Navy, information on the academic qualification of serving officers is contained only on the officer's personal file held by the appropriate appointing authority in MOD. To obtain the information would require a systematic search of all such files involving several hundred man-hours. The Army holds information of this nature on computers, and although regular returns show the number of serving officers with degrees they do not identify them by subject. It is estimated that it would involve about650W nine weeks' activity by the statistical and programming staff concerned to extract the information requested. The computer on which Army personnel records are held is currently being modified, and any additional programming tasks would delay the completion of the task at considerable cost. On the basis of information provided for inclusion in the Air Force List, 2,071 serving RAF officers are known to hold degrees in science subjects awarded by universities and the Council for National Academic Awards, but no officer is compelled to disclose his academic qualifications over and above those required for his appointment, and it is possible that some are not recorded.