§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list in theOfficial Report the total number of airmen/aircrew who have applied in each of the past 10 years to leave the Royal Air Force before completion of their period of contract, indicating for each year the number of such applications which were based on exceptional circumstances; and how many of these have been successful.
§ Mr. NeubertInformation about premature exits of Royal Air Force airmen and aircrew over the past 10 financial years is summarised in the following table:
131W(c) Applications do not necessarilly lead to exits in the same financial year and more than one application may be submitted.
(d) Other exits include exits on compassionate grounds, on nine year notice engagements after three years at 18 months notice and other administrative categories under which airmen may apply to leave the service. Numbers of other applications are not available.
§ Mr. RogersTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many Royal Air Force airmen served in each of the following categories:(a) armament engineering, (b) mechanical engineering, (c) electrical engineering and (d) electronic engineering, in each year since 1979;
(2) how many Royal Air Force airmen became qualified to serve in the following branches (a) armament engineering, (b) mechanical engineering, (c) electrical engineering and (d) electronic engineering, in each year since 1979;
Table 1 Number of trained airmen (including airwomen) at 1 January points 1 January 1980 1 January 1981 1 January 1982 1 January 1983 1 January 1984 1 January 1985 1 January 1986 1 January 1987 1 January 1988 1 January 1989 Armament engineering 2,493 2,753 3,004 2,919 3,067 3,188 3,249 3,255 3,285 3,390 Mechanical engineering 14,346 15,416 16,333 15,905 15,370 16,279 16,496 16,098 15,880 15,447 Electrical engineering 3,727 3,977 4,166 4,147 4,259 4,381 4,386 4,420 4,436 4,372 Electronic engineering 9,633 10,187 9,498 10,694 10,680 10,946 11,212 11,386 11,554 11,127
Table 2 Number of ground airmen (including airwomen) who became qualified in engineering trades by CY CY 80 CY 81 CY 82 CY 83 CY 84 CY 85 CY 86 CY 87 CY 88 Armament engineering 360 371 72 276 260 222 153 152 275 Mechanical engineering 1,680 1,552 301 153 1,569 1,075 523 632 572 Electrical engineering 405 397 198 324335 252 292 224 246 Electronic engineering 987 833 802 571 817 942 876 739 381
Table 3 Number of trained airmen (including airwomen) who left the RAF in CY and the number who failed to complete their engagement CY 80 CY 81 CY 82 CY 83 CY 84 CY 85 CY 86 CY 87 CY 88 Armament engineering Total outflow 100 120 157 128 139 161 147 122 170 Not completing engagement 41 52 76 54 64 92 85 63 107 Mechanical engineering Total outflow 610 635 729 688 660 858 921 850 1,005 Not completing engagement 312 285 333 244 280 394 436 380 517 Electrical engineering Total outflow 155 208 217 212 213 247 258 208 310 Not completing engagement 69 76 85 83 98 98 110 103 164 Electronic engineering Total outflow 433 522 606 585 551 676 702 571 808 Not completing engagement 174 203 199 181 222 303 333 246 436
§ Mr. RogersTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many trained fast-jet pilots took premature voluntary release in each financial year between 1969–70 and 1978–79.
§ Mr. NeubertInformation about exits by trained pilots on premature voluntary release was not maintained prior to 1 April 1975; since that date overall numbers of pilot exits on PVR were recorded and role-related statistics were introduced on 1 April 1979. For the period 1 April 1975 to 1 April 1979 the overall numbers of PVR exits by trained pilots were as follows:
132W
Number 1975–76 77 1976–77 86 1977–78 92 1978–79 84 (3) how many Royal Air Force airmen left the Royal Air Force in each of the following categories: (a) armament engineering, (b) mechanical engineering, (c) electrical engineering and (d) electronic engineering; and how many of these failed to complete their engagement, in each year since 1979.
§ Mr. NeubertThe numbers of ground airmen (including airwomen) in each category in each of the specified groupings of trades, in each year since 1980, are given in tables 1 to 3. The numbers for 1979 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.