Army Recruitment and Retention

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total (a) outflow to civilian life and (b) recruitment was of the regular (i) infantry, (ii) Royal Artillery, (iii) Royal Engineers, (iv) Royal Corps of Signals, (v) Royal Armoured Corps, (vi) Household Cavalry, (vii) Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers and (viii) Army Medical Services in each year since 1997. (81133)

The information is as follows:

*Outflow to civil life from UK Regular Army since 1997 by financial year*
	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Officers
Infantry	230	220	180	200	170	200	190	220	220
Royal Artillery	80	90	90	90	100	70	70	80	70
Royal Engineers	80	80	60	70	90	60	70	70	100
Corps of Royal Signals	70	80	70	80	80	50	50	60	60
Royal Armoured Corps	60	70	50	50	50	40	50	50	50
Household Cavalry	10	10	10	10	10	0	0	10	10
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers	50	70	70	50	60	50	50	40	60
Army Medical Services	90	110	80	80	70	90	70	90	90
Officer Designates	20	180	160	170	130	110	90	120	60

Other Ranks
Infantry	4,440	5,760	5,800	5,000	4,910	4,720	4,710	4,600	4,290
Royal Artillery	1,040	1,310	1,240	1,130	1,030	1,070	1,140	1,100	960
Royal Engineers	1,230	1,240	1,120	1,020	1,090	1,110	1,230	1,350	1,330
Corps of Royal Signals	1,330	1,250	1,080	1,240	1,080	950	960	1,010	970
Royal Armoured Corps	550	740	690	710	620	700	730	660	700
Household Cavalry	120	140	120	120	150	140	160	140	110
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers	1,070	1,060	1,040	1,090	980	1,170	1,110	1,260	1,220
Army Medical Services	320	380	330	340	360	340	330	420	390

*Intake to untrained strength UK Regular Army since 1997 by financial year*
	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Total Officers and Officer Designates	870	670	1,040	850	820	880	880	680	730

Other Ranks
Infantry	4,940	5,820	5,800	5,220	4,970	5,040	4,690	3,490	3,500
Royal Artillery	1,030	1,370	1,340	1,040	980	920	1,000	630	770
Royal Engineers	1,120	1,150	1,070	1,140	1,290	1,520	1,090	940	1,470
Corps of Royal Signals	1,290	1,190	1,230	1,090	970	1,130	1,020	770	760
Royal Armoured Corps	590	820	710	700	700	740	580	280	600
Household Cavalry	130	160	130	120	100	90	140	100	80
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers	940	900	950	1,060	1,280	1,500	1,430	1,070	1,260
Army Medical Services	300	390	400	370	370	430	440	370	400

Total officers and officer designates intake to untrained strength can only be shown as most officer cadets are not allocated an Arm and Service until completion of training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

UK Regular Army includes nursing services and excludes full-time reserve service personnel, Gurkhas, the Home Service Battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment and Mobilised Reservists.

The data have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in ‘5’ have been rounded to nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias.

Volume 448: debated on Monday 3 July 2006