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Recruitment

Volume 455: debated on Monday 8 January 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when each of the armed services last (a) met and (b) exceeded recruitment targets. (110186)

Overall, the armed forces last met and exceeded recruitment targets in financial year 2003-04 when they gained 23,540 recruits from civilian life against a target 23,269. In financial year 2005-06 the naval service gained 3,940 recruits against a target of 3,933, and in financial year 2003-04 the Army gained 15,260 recruits against a target of 14,493. The RAF has almost achieved target on a number of occasions, the most recent being financial year 2005-06 when it gained 1,480 recruits from civilian life against a target of 1,500. Details of individual service recruitment targets prior to 1 April 2000 are not kept on a central database.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many recruits to the infantry in Scotland there were in each of the last 12 months. (110432)

The following table shows those recruits who went onto infantry courses for the last 12 months and had been allocated to the Scottish Division by the Army's recruiting authority. Some of these soldiers may change infantry division, capbadge or may not complete training.

Scottish Division Infantry loading

Number

December 2005

0

January 2006

90

February

30

March

20

April

30

May

30

June

0

July

50

August

60

September

50

October

40

November

20

Statistics have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.