HC Deb 15 March 2000 vol 346 cc201-2W
Mr. Alexander

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people from(a) Paisley, South, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK are serving in Her Majesty's armed forces. [113553]

Mr. Spellar

Examination of available personal records of currently serving personnel1 has revealed the following information:

Area Naval Service Army RAF
(a) Paisley 26 2— 370
(b) Scotland 2,552 21,374 5,769
(c) UK 442,902 108,926 51,450
1 Naval Service data are based on current place of residence. About 29,000 Naval Personnel (some 67 per cent. of total strength) personal records include reference to current place of residence. Army and RAF details are based on nationality at birth taken from personal records of all Army and RAF personnel.
2 Army records do not show this level of detail.
3 RAF figures cover Paisley as a whole and not just Paisley, South.
4 Naval Service total strength as at 1 February 2000 was 42,902, but this includes an unspecified number of Commonwealth citizens and Republic of Ireland nationals.