Frank Roy
Main Page: Frank Roy (Labour - Motherwell and Wishaw)Department Debates - View all Frank Roy's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(9 years, 2 months ago)
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Mr Brazier
For obvious reasons, some of the detail of the recruiting in that area will not be published in the House, and I am sure that the hon. Lady—my hon. Friend, if I may call her that—will understand those reasons. There is, however, a big upturn in recruitment right across the reserves, as the figures I gave the House earlier indicated.
Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)
Over the past two years, the MOD has spent £16.4 million on television advertising for recruitment purposes. Was that money well spent? How many recruits resulted from that large spend?
Mr Brazier
We cannot say what proportion of recruits resulted from it, but we can say that there has been a surge in recruiting, and that it was up 147% on the quarter last year, as the figures I have just given the House show. Additionally, although we are not going to publish the figures on cyber-recruiting, I can say that they are running ahead of the reserves average as a percentage.
Mr Speaker
Order. So many distinguished colleagues; so little time to hear them.
Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)
Will the Secretary of State explain why the House is not allowed to know how many people were recruited from an online source?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Julian Brazier)
There has been no attempt to refuse to answer that question. All Army recruits, regular and reserve—100%—come through online applications. We have published the numbers of enlistments. [Interruption.] The number I cited earlier—1,490—was the number of Army reservists. I will write to the hon. Gentleman with other numbers. There is no secret about this at all: all Army recruits come through the online system.