§ Mr. Robert Banksasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the present number of fluent Russian language speakers in each of the armed services compared to the number approximately three years ago.
§ Mr. FreemanThere are a total of 148 fluent Russian speakers currently in the regular armed forces. This compares with a total of 143 in 1983. A breakdown by Service and year is:
Royal Navy Royal Marines Army Royal Air Force Total 1986 24 2 106 16 148 1983 26 2 99 16 143
§ Mr. Robert Banksasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the number of seagoing Her Majesty's ships whose complement includes a qualified Russian linguist.
§ Mr. FreemanIt is not our practice to disclose information of this nature.
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§ Mr. Robert Banksasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the number of full-time instructors of the Russian language in each of the armed services for each of the last three years.
§ Mr. FreemanDetails of the number of full-time instructors of the Russian language in each of the armed services for each of the last three years are as follows. Considerable use is also made of Ministry of Defence employed civilian instructional staff for language tuition for the Armed Services. Details of the number of such civilian staff engaged in full-time Russian language tuition are as follows:
Service 1986 1985 1984 Royal Navy 0 0 0 Army 11 11 8 Royal Air Force 1 1 0 MOD Civilian 24 20 18
§ Mr. Robert Banksasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the number of qulaified Russian language speakers at present actively serving in the Royal Naval Reserve, and the numbers who have completed training commitments for each of the last three years.
§ Mr. FreemanThere are at present 10 Russian language speakers qualified to interpreter standard serving in the Royal Naval Reserve, all of whom have completed their training commitments for each of the past three years.