Service Applicants (Fitness) (Hansard, 24 January 2002)

§ Mr. Ingram

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 19 December 2001,Official Report, column 339W. The information that is available is shown in the table, which includes some corrected and updated figures for Royal Marine Other Ranks. A breakdown by gender is only available for the Army. The principal reason for the significant variation in failure rates between the RAF other ranks and those of the other services is that the medical examination is undertaken at a much later stage in the selection process, by which time many of the applicants have already withdrawn for other reasons.

990W

	Medical rejections
Service	Number	Percentage of applicants
Royal Navy Officers
1996–97	32	2.7
1997–98	16	1.1
1998–99	32	2.3
1999–2000	39	2.7
2000–01	43	3.0
2001–02¹	35	3.2
Royal Navy Ratings
1996–97	544	6.7
1997–98	764	8.9
1998–99	813	8.2
1999–2000	821	8.7
2000–01	923	9.8
2001–02¹	626	10.2
Royal Marines Officers
1996–97	3	0.9
1997–98	1	0.4
1998–99	3	0.9
1999–2000	18	5.7
2000–01	21	4.9
2001–02¹	7	2.7
Royal Marines Other Ranks²
1996–97	55	2.0
1997–98	91	2.8
1998–99	126	3.7
1999–2000	189	4.9
2000–01	200	5.5
2001–02¹	140	6.3
Army Officers
1995–96	30	2.0 (80%m, 20%f)
1996–97	38	2.4 (79%m, 21%f)
1997–98	41	2.6 (78%m, 22%f)
1998–99	42	3.7 (81%m, 19%f)
1999–2000	60	4.9 (80%m, 20%f)
2000–01	33	2.9 (76%m, 24%f)
2001–02¹	43	7.2 (77%m, 23%f)
Army Other Ranks
1997–98	1,880	10.3 (81%m. 19%f)
1998–99	2,304	11.1 (81%m, 19%f)
1999–2000	1,660	8.0 (84%m, 16%f)
2000–01	1,132	5.5 (87%m, 13%0
2001–02¹	—³	—³
Royal Air Force Officers
1996–97	184	3.5
1997–98	183	3.8
1998–99	215	4.2
1999–2000	215	4.0
2000–01	255	5.4
2001–02¹	107	14.2
Royal Air Force Airmen/Airwomen
1996–97	56	1.3
1997–98	88	0.9
1998–99	105	0.6
1999–2000	126	0.8
2000–01	193	1.2
2001–02¹	184	1.8
¹ The figures for 2001–02 are as at 7 December 2001
² Women are currently only permitted to join the Royal Marine Band Service
³ Army Other Rank figures unavailable for 2001–02