Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of lowering the age for deployable service-personnel to 16.

All recruitment into the UK military is voluntary and no young person under the age of 18 years may join our Armed Forces unless their application is accompanied by the formal written consent of their parent or guardian. We take the duty of care towards all recruits seriously, in particular those under 18 years of age. We have robust, effective, and independently verified safeguards in place to ensure that under-18s are cared for properly.

Service personnel aged under 18 are not deployed on hostile operations outside the UK or on any operations where they could be exposed to hostilities; we have no plans to change that policy. All new recruits, regardless of age, can discharge within their first three to six months of Service. Our policies on under-18s in Service comply with national and international law. In addition to the comprehensive welfare system that is in place for all Service personnel, we remain fully committed to meeting our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, and have taken steps to bestow special safeguards on young people under the age of 18.

Further, the provision of education and training for 16-year-old school leavers not only provides a route into the Armed Forces that complies with Government education policy and offers a significant foundation for development, but it also enables access to training in literacy and numeracy, as well as enrolment in apprenticeships. Ofsted regularly inspects our care of newly joined young recruits, and we are very proud of the standards we achieve.