To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the drop-out rate was for recruits undergoing infantry training at Catterick barracks in (a) 2002 and (b) 2007. (232613)

The percentage of Infantry recruits who did not complete their infantry training at the Infantry Training Centre (ITC), Catterick is as follows:

At the start of 2002-03 Infantry training was conducted as a phase one course at the Army Training Regiments (ATRs) followed by a 14-week phase two course at the Infantry Training Centre Catterick. During 2002-03 a new 24-week combined phase one and two course started at Catterick. So prior to the first full year of the combined course at 2003-04 some of the wastage would have already taken place at the ATRs and the wastage at Catterick reflected only the second part of the training. The figures for 2002-03 and 2007-08 therefore cannot be compared on a like-for-like basis.