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Recruitment

Volume 897: debated on Thursday 7 August 1975

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asked the Secretary of State for Defence what were the total costs of the recruitment activities of the Armed Services during the latest year for which figures are available and the average recruitment cost of each recruit during the last year for which figures are available.

In the financial year 1973–74, which is the latest year for which figures of actual expenditure are available, the cost of recruiting was £16·96 million. The estimated cost for 1974–75 was £18·65 million, although figures for actual expenditure in this year are not yet available. Total recruitment to the Armed Services was 32,433 in 1973–74 and 42,236 in 1974–75. Direct comparison between the cost of recruitment and the numbers recruited is likely to be misleading since the level of recruiting in any one year is influenced by a number of factors other than expenditure—for example, in 1973–74 the number of Service men recruited was abnormally low as a result of the raising of the school-leaving age.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what was the cost of maintaining the Armed Services recruitment centres during the latest complete year for which figures are available.

The only readily-identifiable costs associated with careers information offices are the costs of Service and civilian staff and rentals. In 1973–74, which is the latest year for which figures are readily available, these amounted to about £5·9 million.

asked the Secretary of State for Defence how many officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks respectively, are currently manning the 220 military recruitment centres in the United Kingdom.

There are 295 Service careers information centres in the United Kingdom, at which 254 officers, including 99 retired officers, 1,094 non-commissioned officers and 153 other ranks are employed.