Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many soldiers who enlisted (a) under 18 years old and (b) 18 years old or above left the Army before completion of their Phase Two training in each of the last five financial years.

The number of soldiers who left the Army before completion of their Phase Two training, broken down by under 18, and 18 and above, in the last five financial years is shown below.

Notes:

1. The figures are for Regular Army only and therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service and Mobilised Reserves.

2. Personnel who have left the Army more than once in the last five financial years will be counted each time they left in the table above. Their age on enlistment will vary according to each time they joined the Army.

3. Age on enlistment is calculated using date of birth and entry date recorded on JPA. Where personnel have transferred to the Army from another Service, served under an alternative assignment type (e.g. reserve forces), are re-entrants or have transferred from Other Ranks to Officers, their entry date may correspond to any of these events.

4. For presentation purpose, figures have been rounded to 10; numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. Totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not appear to be the sum of their parts.