§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many men were recruited to the Ulster Defence Regiment during the last complete year for which 246W figures are available; and, of these, how many were Catholic, Protestant and of neither religious group, respectively;
(2) how many men applied to join the Ulster Defence Regiment during the last complete 12-month period for which this information is available; and of these, how many were Protestant, Roman Catholic or neither, respectively.
§ Mr. WellbelovedIn the financial year 1977–78, 3,305 men applied to join the Ulster Defence Regiment and 1,903 were recruited.
Although details of the applicants' religion are recorded on individual application forms, central records of the religion of members of the Ulster Defence Regiment have not been kept for the whole of the period in question. Without expending disproportionate effort, it is only possible to give approximate percentages of Roman Catholics who applied to join and who were recruited by the Ulster Defence Regiment. These percentages were about 5.6 and 3 respectively.