§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence how much money was spent by the Services in recruiting for each year 1970 to 1977, expressed in terms of the cost per recruit.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe information is as follows:
Recruiting expenditure £ million Number of recruits Cost per recruit £ 1970–71 … 12.9 47,806 270 1971–72 … 14.2 55,454 256 1972–73 … 15.2 46,324 328 1973–74 … 16.9 32,433 521 … (0.341) 1974–75 … 19.9 42,236 471 … (0.353) 1975–76 … 24.2 46,906 516 … (0.372) 1976–77 … 26.3 40,244 654 … (0.453) Figures in brackets represent rentals of careers information offices which are included in the figures for total expenditure. Similar figures for earlier years are not available and are not included in total expenditure for these years.
Direct comparison between recruiting expenditure and numbers recruited can be misleading since the level of recruiting in any one year is influenced by a number of factors other than expenditure—for example, in 1973–74 the number of Service personnel recruited was abnormally low as a result of the raising of the school leaving age.