Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether armed forces recruiting staff are required to meet in person the parents or legal guardians of potential recruits aged under 18, before consent to enlistment is granted.
Answered by Julian Brazier
It is Ministry of Defence policy that all three Services must obtain the written consent of a parent or guardian for candidates under the age of 18 before an application to join the Armed Forces can be processed.
Thereafter, proof of consent is checked at different points during the application process before a young person can enlist. Where a parent or guardian wishes to meet recruiting staff, they are given the opportunity to do so.
Recruiting staff are required to ensure that all candidates under the age of 18 and their parents or guardians have access to a full explanation of the terms and conditions of service during the application process and before entry into the Armed Forces.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what measures are in place to ensure that the parents or legal guardians of armed forces recruits aged under 18 are fully informed of the nature of enlistment into military service before they grant consent to enlistment.
Answered by Julian Brazier
It is Ministry of Defence policy that all three Services must obtain the written consent of a parent or guardian for candidates under the age of 18 before an application to join the Armed Forces can be processed.
Thereafter, proof of consent is checked at different points during the application process before a young person can enlist. Where a parent or guardian wishes to meet recruiting staff, they are given the opportunity to do so.
Recruiting staff are required to ensure that all candidates under the age of 18 and their parents or guardians have access to a full explanation of the terms and conditions of service during the application process and before entry into the Armed Forces.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which charitable projects in Scotland have received funding from the Armed Forces Covenant (LIBOR) Fund to date.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The allocation of some £35 million in LIBOR fines to the Ministry Of Defence to support the Armed Forces community is just one example of the importance this Government places on the Armed Forces covenant.
We have provided £5.5 million of funding for 12 Scottish projects. In addition, the Armed Forces community in Scotland will benefit from a number of UK-wide projects which have been allocated over £16 million of LIBOR funding.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many requests for discharge were made by soldiers aged (a) 19 and (b) 20 years who had served at least three years in the regular Army in the last five years; and what the outcome was of each such request.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Soldiers must normally serve a minimum of three years before they can voluntarily discharge with a year's notice. Consequently, the number of applications from 19 year-olds is lower than from those aged 20 years of age. "Requests for discharge" has been interpreted as Voluntary Outflow Applications which are recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration system.
The number of applications for voluntary discharge made by trained Regular Soldiers aged 19 and 20 between 1 March 2009 and 1 March 2014 are shown in the following table
| Age on Application | No of Applications |
| 19 | 50 |
| 20 | 330 |
| Total | 380 |
Source: Defence Statistics (Army)
These figures include some personnel who applied for voluntary release, but who were subsequently discharged for other reasons. The actual numbers discharged between 1 March 2009 and 31 March 2014, and the reasons for the discharge are shown below:
Age on Application
19 20
Voluntary Outflow 20 240
Administrative discharge 10 30
Medical/Other - 10
Total 30 270
Source: Defence Statistics (Army). Figures have been rounded to 10; numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
These figures exclude requests for medical, administrative and disciplinary discharges. Some applications may have been withdrawn at a later date and that some individual soldiers may have applied for voluntary discharge more than once.
Asked by: Cathy Jamieson (Labour (Co-op) - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what training programmes or qualifications are available to recruits who enlist as minors which are not available to those who enlist aged 18 years or over.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Young people joining the Army attend Phase 1 training at the Army Foundation College (Harrogate) and complete different programmes depending on the part of the Army they wish to join. Full details of the training offered at Harrogate is available at this link: http://www.army.mod.uk/training_education/24420.aspx
For the Royal Navy and RAF, age at enlistment has no bearing on the training programmes or qualifications available during initial training.
Irrespective of the age that an individual joins the Armed Forces, approximately 90% of all recruits complete an apprenticeship within three years of joining.