§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the average(a) numbers of pupils involved in and (b) cost of the Combined Cadet Force per school in the last year for which figures are available; and what estimate he has made of the percentage of a year's intake which goes on to join the regular forces. [36695]
§ Dr. Reid[holding answer 30 March 1998]: In FY 1996–97, 241 schools had contingents of the Combined Cadet Forces established within their premises, with 39,716 pupils who were cadets. Producing an average CCF pupil to school ratio could, however, be misleading since the size of individual contingents varies significantly.
In the same period, the Ministry of Defence allocated £6.2M to these schools in support of the Combined Cadet Forces. I regret that my Department keeps no separate records detailing the overall costs attributable to individual schools. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Whilst my Department sets no annual recruiting targets for schools, the percentage of officer entrants into the Regular Forces during FY 1996/97, who had previously been members of the Combined Cadet Forces, were: Royal Navy 26.03%, Army 49%, Royal Air Force 26.45%. From a total intake of 18,737 ratings/soldiers/ airmen into the Regular Forces in FY 1996/97, 280 had former service in the CCF.