Armed Forces: Foreigners

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 24 November 2009, Official Report, column 52W, on armed forces: recruitment, how many members of the armed forces there are from each other Commonwealth country. (316925)

The number of personnel joining the UK armed forces from Commonwealth countries is given in the following table. There is a discontinuity between the statistics for 2006-07 and other years presented in the table due to the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration System and direct comparisons should not be made.

Nationality	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Total non-UK Commonwealth	680	1,220	1,460
Australian	¹—	10	10
Bahamian	¹—	¹—	¹—
Bangladeshi	¹—	¹—	¹—
Barbadian	¹—	¹—	¹—
Belizean	¹—	¹—	30
Bermudan	¹—	¹—	¹—
Botswanan	¹—	10	20
Cameroonian	10	20	20
Canadian	10	¹—	¹—
Fijian	20	230	170
Seychellois	¹—	¹—	¹—
Sri Lankan	¹—	¹—	¹—
Dominican	10	10	¹—
Gambian	30	80	80
Ghanaian	160	220	180
Grenadian	10	20	90
Guyanese	¹—	¹—	10
Indian	10	40	30
Jamaican	20	30	40
Kenyan	30	40	60
Lesotho	¹—	¹—	¹—
Malawian	20	60	60
Malaysian	¹—	¹—	¹—
Maltese	¹—	¹—	¹—
Mauritian	10	20	10
Namibian	¹—	¹—	¹—
New Zealander	¹—	10	10
Nigerian	20	60	50
Pakistani	¹—	¹—	10
St. Lucian	20	20	60
Sierra Leonean	¹—	10	10
Singaporean	¹—	¹—	¹—
South African	170	160	170
Swazi	10	¹—	¹—
Tanzanian	¹—	¹—	¹—
Tongan	¹—	¹—	¹—
Trinidadian	10	10	20
Ugandan	20	20	20
Vincentian	10	40	190
Zambian	10	10	20
Zimbabwean	60	50	60
¹Denotes zero or rounded to zero. Notes: 1. Figures for 2006-07 exclude RAF data as the nationality of those joining the RAF can be identified only after 2006-07 with the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) System. 2. Army figures for 2006-07 are for an 11 month period between 1 April 2006 and 28 February 2007. Due to the introduction of JPA, Army intake by nationality is unavailable for March 2007. 3. The data provided are provisional and subject to review due to ongoing validation of data from the JPA system. 4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

Volume 506: debated on Monday 22 February 2010