§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the cost of training new recruits to armed forces to meet the rate of resignations as a percentage of each armed forces total salary bill; and if he will make a statement. [21650]
§ Dr. Reid[holding answer 22 December 1997]: The Armed Forces require about 25,000 new recruits each year to maintain the trained manpower requirement, and to meet the annual rate of outflow both in terms of resignations and natural wastage. The numbers of personnel who left the Armed Forces under Premature Voluntary Release (PVR) terms in 1996–97, and the numbers recruited from civil life by Service that year, are shown in the table:
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Service (a) PVR exits (b) Numbers recruited (c) Comparison: ((b) as a percentage (c)) (d) Naval Service 2,013 3,959 151% Army 6,224 15,552 40% RAF 1,718 2,684 164% 1 The comparison figures for the Naval Service and RAF are, to an extent, exaggerated because of the Defence Cost Study redundancy programmes, resulting in a lowering of the trained requirement. Recruits would not be needed to replace redundees in the same way that they would be to replace those leaving for other reasons. The cost of initial recruit training in financial year 1996–97 for each Service was:
£ million Per cent. £ million Naval Service 56.5 x51= 28.82 Army 69.6 x40= 27.80 RAF 26.8 x64= 17.15 Total 152.8 73.77 The costs in the left hand column cover initial recruit training for all intakes; that is, to maintain the trained manpower requirement, and to meet the annual rate of outflow both in terms of resignations and natural wastage. Although there is no direct relationship between numbers recruited and resignations in any given year, the costs in the right hand column express the approximate cost of training an equivalent number of recruits to those leaving on resignation. The total of £73.77 million represents just over 1 per cent. of the overall cost of the Armed Forces salaries bill for 1996–97.