Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average age was of regular (a) officers and (b) other ranks joining the (i) Infantry, (ii) Royal Artillery, (iii) Royal Corps of Signals, (iv) Army Medical Services, (v) Adjutant General's Corps, (vi) Royal Armoured Corps, (vii) Army Air Corps, (viii) Royal Engineers, (ix) Royal Logistics Corps, (x) Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and (xi) Intelligence Corps in each of the last ten years.

The average (mean) age of other ranks and officers on joining the Army is set out within the attached tables. For Other Ranks this is broken down by the Arms/Corps requested. For Officers this is broken down by General Staff, who are not assigned a capbadge until completion of their commissioning course, and professionally qualified officers.