Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Frank Roy and Julian Brazier

Monday 23rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[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For obvious reasons, some of the detail of the recruiting in that area will not be published in the House, and I am sure that the hon.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.

--- Later in debate ---

[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.

Reserve Recruitment

Debate between Frank Roy and Julian Brazier

Monday 17th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brazier]

The first thing we should recognise is that this is part of corporate social responsibility. Any employer who signs up faces the prospect that in extremis his employee might be compulsorily mobilised. What he gets for that is somebody who is motivated and who is trained in a variety of ways not available in civilian life. What he gets also is a loyal employee with good values. The financial side has been improved in various ways, including the £500 a month extra compensation for a small business that loses an employee on operations, over and above the full compensation package.

[Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)]

How much money has been spent on television recruitment ads this year, and is the Minister happy with that cost?

[Mr Brazier]

I am sorry, I did not hear the question.