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Officers and Soldiers

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 6 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how his Department defines (a) trained and (b) untrained (i) officers and (ii) soldiers. (104484)

Officers are classed as trained, and are taken on to the trained strength of the Army, upon successfully passing out of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst (RMAS). Prior to completing the commissioning course at RMAS potential officers are classed as untrained and counted on the Army’s untrained strength.

Soldiers are classed as trained, and taken on to the trained strength of the Army, once they have successfully passed Phase One Common Military Syllabus (Recruit) (CMS(R)) course together with Phase Two Special-to-Arm (STA) course. While undertaking training (CMS(R) and STA) soldiers are classed as untrained, and counted as part of the Army’s untrained strength.