Recruitment (Hansard, 14 January 2002)

§ 22. Richard Ottaway
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what are the recruitment figures for the(a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) Royal Air Force in the last six months. [24484]

§ Mr. Ingram
The most recent figures show that between 1 April and 1 November 2001, the recruitment figure for the Royal Navy was 2,945, the Army 8,737 and the RAF 2,303.

§ 27. Mr. Tynan
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his plans for recruitment to the armed services. [24489]

§ Mr. Ingram
In the current financial year the armed forces aim to recruit in excess of 24,800 young people. In order to achieve this, all three services are undertaking many initiatives both at national level and at local level. Included among the initiatives are: the use of multi-media advertising campaigns; attendance by services' recruiting teams at schools, youth clubs, careers fairs and graduate recruitment seminars; work experience placements within service establishments; personal development courses and look at life courses for people who express an interest in the armed forces; taster day visits to HM ships and service establishments; a dedicated careers website for each of the services; introduction by the Army of an on-line recruiting office, with plans for this concept to be replicated by the other services; specialist ethnic minority recruiting and diversity action teams aimed at promoting armed forces careers to ethnic minority communities; and a partnership with the Employment Service, making use of its local outlets Jobcentre Plus.

§ 32. Mr. Laurence Robertson
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on recruitment and retention in the Army. [24494]

§ Mr. Ingram
We remain committed to delivering the military capability required of the Army in the Strategic Defence Review. This will require an increase in its strength from current levels, which we are tackling in a number of different ways. We are focusing on attracting more high quality potential recruits into the training organisations while reducing wastage. Measures introduced already, both regionally and nationally, have helped to hold retention levels steady and reduce the numbers of recruits dropping out of training.