§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the number of recruits to the armed forces from each of the three ridings of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire for each year since 1987.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonIt is not possible to provide the information in the precise form requested.
For the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force it is not possible to give figures for the number of recruits who originated from a particular area without checking each recruit's personal file. However, the following figures show the number of non-commissioned recruits enlisted at individual careers information offices in the counties that now make up the three ridings of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire, following the Local Government Act, 1972. It is possible though that some recruits did not live in the area from where they were recruited.
112W
Careers information office 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 Royal Navy/Royal Marines North, South and West Yorkshire/Humberside Barnsley 24 16 1— Hull 103 138 127 Leeds 149 143 133 Sheffield 143 127 132 York 45 45 37 Lancashire/Greater Manchester/Merseyside Blackburn 88 91 90 Liverpool 184 217 281 Manchester 82 134 152 Preston 54 55 70 St. Helens 102 102 155 Cumbria Carlisle 80 74 64 Royal Air Force North, South and West Yorkshire Bradford 58 38 68
Careers information office 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 Huddersfield 37 56 62 Leeds 159 127 147 Sheffield 117 116 192 York 55 65 79 Lancashire/Greater Manchester/Merseyside Blackpool 43 68 76 Liverpool 134 183 283 Manchester 263 252 347 Oldham 56 87 96 Preston 97 135 148 St. Helens 87 69 91 Cumbria Carlisle 43 61 43 Note: There are no RN or RAF CIOs in Cheshire (although there are CIOs in neighbouring counties).
1 Now closed.
It is not possible to give comparable figures for officer applicants to the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, as these are handled centrally.
The following figures for the Army include officers and soldiers.
County 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 North Yorkshire 283 293 312 South Yorkshire 450 592 618 West Yorkshire 596 759 791 Lancashire 882 944 525 Greater Manchester 1,107 964 812 Merseyside 710 708 728 Cumbria 190 212 477 Cheshire 483 533 550