Armed Forces: Languages

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British military personnel have received training in the (a) Farsi or Dari, (b) Arabic, (c) Urdu and (d) Pashto languages in each year since 2007. (258874)

The information is not held in the format requested. The numbers of exams taken in the years 2007-09, however, are as follows:

	Total
Arabic
2006-07	329
2007-08	230
2008-09¹	195

Dari/Farsi
2006-07	103
2007-08	84
2008-09	91

Pashtu
2006-07	160
2007-08	188
2008-09	209

Urdu
2006-07	3
2007-08	6
2008-09	9
¹ Figures for 2008-09 are to date as the training year is not yet complete.

Volume 488: debated on Tuesday 3 March 2009