Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of early service leavers made use of the Career Transition Partnership in each of the last five years.

Following the 'Veterans' Transition Review' conducted by Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC in 2014, the Ministry of Defence implemented initiatives to ensure Early Service Leavers (ESLs) were offered resettlement support from the Career Transition Partnership Future Horizons (CTPFH) programme to tackle barriers to employment, education or further training.

The Department does not hold information on the number of ESLs who used CTP services between 1 October 2013 and 1 October 2015. Between 1 October 2015 and 31 March 2016, a total of 956 ESLs used the CTPFH programme (from a total of 1,144 eligible ESLs) which equates to a take-up rate of 84%.

During financial year 2015-16, 11,163 Service Leavers (SLs) used CTP services, which includes the 956 ESLs who used the CTPFH programme between October 2015 and March 2016. Of the 599 SLs who used the CTPFH in this period and who had their employment information recorded, 449 (74%) were employed six months post-discharge.

The vast majority of SLs who used the CTPFH were ESLs, although these figures also include some SLs who were eligible to access the Core Resettlement Programme or the Employment Support Programme but instead opted to use the CTPFH programme.