Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the pass rate was for each cohort of recruits to the army in each of the last five years.

The pass rate for recruits into the Army’s trained strength for the last five years is set out in the tables below.

The definition of trained personnel was changed in October 2016 to reflect the ability for personnel who have completed basic training to be utilised in response to crises within the UK. Prior to this information was only held centrally by the Department in relation to recruits completing trade training.

2017-18 figures will include a significant number of personnel still progressing through either basic or trade training and therefore pass rates will continue to increase. In earlier years some individuals can take longer to proceed through the pipeline due to differing lengths of trade training and personal/medical reasons and are therefore shown as still in training.

The Army also has an intake of recruits every year who have already passed elements of training during previous Service; as such, the below intake does not fully reflect the total intake into the Army each year.

Table 1: Pass Rates for Regular Officers, FY 2013-14 to 2017-18

Table 2: Pass Rates for Other Ranks, FY 2013-14 to 2017-18

Source: Defence Statistics(Army)

Notes:

The figures are for the Regular Army only and therefore exclude Gurkhas and Army Reserves. Professionally Qualified Officers have been excluded. Officer figures are those new to the Regular Army, and exclude Soldiers transfers.

Personnel who have not yet passed training, but are still in the Army are included in the Still Untrained column. For 2017-18, Still Untrained refers to personnel who are still in Basic Training.