§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list by service, corps and regiment, recruitment levels nationally and by region of the UK for the most recent year for which figures are available. [131592]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 25 July 2000]: Details on armed forces recruitment levels are not held centrally in the format requested. Information is held, however, on the number of selections, by Government Office region. It should be noted that selection figures indicate those personnel who have been chosen to enter the Services. For many, the actual date of intake into the armed forces will have fallen outside the year of selection.
The selections during the period 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000, by Service and Government Office region, are reproduced in the table.
Government office region Naval Service1 Army2 RAF3 North East 431 1,339 237 North West 454 1,425 351 Merseyside 315 735 175 Yorkshire/Humberside 454 1,452 329 East Midlands 307 730 205 West Midlands 306 1,071 187 Eastern 320 637 345 London 302 702 108 South East 537 902 212 South West 951 1,495 449 Wales 294 1,152 240 Scotland 595 1,616 376 Northern Ireland 94 337 95 Unknown — 1 77 Total 5,360 13,594 3,386 1 Naval Service data are for Other Ranks only. 2 Army data are for Other Ranks only. 3 RAF data includes Officers and Other Ranks.