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.

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

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 Some applications may have been withdrawn at a later date and that some individual soldiers may have applied for voluntary discharge more than once.