Infantry: Recruitment and Target Strength

Mr. Harper

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of television advertising campaigns in 2006 in encouraging the recruitment of infantry personnel. (112988)

[holding answer 9 January 2007]: It is not possible to accurately identify the numbers of responses specifically generated by television advertising. However, Army advertising as a whole over the period 1 April to 1 December 2006 generated 163,770 inquiries to join the Regular Army. This compares very favourably with 88,000 inquiries for the same period last year. Of these, the Army judges that the multi-media Infantry ‘Forward as One’ campaign generated 113,000 inquiries, with the balance attributable to the ‘Everest West Ridge’ campaign. From these campaigns, the Army has received 30,020 specific inquiries to join the Infantry. Enlistments to the Infantry are currently up 30 per cent. compared with the same period in the financial year 2005-06 and the number of newly trained infantrymen that are forecast to join their units by the end of this financial year is up 15 per cent. on last year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what the target strength was for the infantry (a) as a whole and (b) for the Scottish infantry for the years ending 31 March (i) 2001, (ii) 2002, (iii) 2003, (iv) 2004, (v) 2005 and (vi) 2006; what the actual strengths were in each case in each year; what the original recruiting target was for each of these years in each case; and whether the target was revised; (107868)

(2) whether the original recruiting targets for the (a) infantry and (b) Scottish infantry were achieved;

(3) what recruiting targets for the (a) infantry and (b) Scottish infantry have been set for the year ending 31 March 2007; and what recruitment has been to date in 2006-07.

[holding answer 13 December 2006]: The following tables show the target and actual strength of the Regular Army Infantry as at 1 April 2001-06. The ‘target strength’ is presented in terms of Liability. Liability is not available by Infantry Division.

*Trained Infantry Strengths and Liabilities*^1,2
	Regular Army Infantry Liability³	Infantry Strength^3,4	Scottish Division Strength⁵
2001	26,740	25,690	3,650
2002	26,740	25,640	3,650
2003	26,200	25,480	3,670
2004	26,360	25,870	3,700
2005	24,420	25,060	3,640
2006	24,450	24,080	3,510
¹ Figures are for all infantry trained officers and soldiers (excluding colonels and above) regardless of where they are serving e.g. it includes elements of the manning and training margin, including infantry cap badged soldiers and officers who are serving in E1-E3 posts, on the Y list etc. Figures exclude Gurkhas. ² Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. ³ Figures include Scottish Division ⁴ Strength figures include Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel figures ⁵ Figures exclude the Scots Guards.

The Army Recruiting and Training Division, which is responsible for the recruitment and training of soldiers, recruits infantry soldiers to the three infantry career employment groups; line, parachute and guards, not to specific infantry capbadges.

Recruiting targets for the infantry, and achievements into training for the Financial Years 2000-01 to 2005-06, are detailed in the following table.

Financial Year	Infantry recruiting target	Infantry enlistment achievement
2000-01	Record not available	4,840
2001-02	5,160	4,490
2002-03	4,270	4,950
2003-04	4,460	4,620
2004-05	4,150	3,410
2005-06	4,150	3,450

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

Volume 455: debated on Thursday 11 January 2007