Ministry of Defence: Grants

(asked on 17th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) sixth form scholarships, (b) university bursaries and (c) other bursaries have been awarded by his Department in each of the last five years; and what the total value of those scholarships and bursaries were in each of those years.


Answered by
Johnny Mercer Portrait
Johnny Mercer
Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This question was answered on 22nd March 2021

The Ministry of Defence keeps accurate records of the number and value of scholarships and bursaries awarded. However, the Defence Recruiting System has no field to record the status of a school i.e. state or private. This means that a determination as to school status would require every case to be manually opened and individual documents scrutinised.

Awards of scholarships and bursaries are made on merit alone and the status of an applicant’s school has no bearing on the outcome of any decisions. For that reason, the Department has no plans to create a central record of the school status of recipients of scholarships and bursaries.

The single Services have provided the following information on bursaries and scholarships:

Naval Service:

Bursaries

Total Value of Bursaries

Defence Technical Undergraduate Scheme (DTUS)

Total value of DTUS

Scholarships

Total Value of Scholarships

2017

16

£51,500

40

£160,000

10

£10,500

2018

17

£50,500

23

£92,000

11

£16,500

2019

17

£50,500

33

£132,000

16

£24,000

2020

3

£9,500

41

£164,000

1

£1,500

Note: information from 2016 is not held.

Army:

Bursaries

2015-16

59

2016-17

110

2017-18

133

2018-19

109

2019-20

130

Note: figures for 2016-17 are for Standard Bursary awards only. Figures for all other years also include Technical Bursary and Enhanced Bursary awards

Professionally Qualified Officer (Medical) Bursaries 2016-2019

Year

Doctors

Dentist

Vets

Nurses

Soldier Nurses

Total Awards

2016

23

1

2

1

N/A

27

2017

32

2

3

1

N/A

38

2018

28

1

1

4

N/A

34

2019

30

1

1

1

5

38

Army Officer Scholarship Scheme Awards 2015-2019

Year

Scholarship

2015

61

2016

40

2017

37

2018

73

2019

59

In the time available, the Army have not been able to provide complete financial information for 2016-17 and 2017-18. In addition, all the following figures are approximate:

Army Spend on Bursaries and Scholarships 2016-17 to 2019-20

2016-17 – £930,000

2017-18 – £1.4 million

2018-19 – £3 million

2019-20 – £3.8 million

Royal Air Force (RAF):

In each of the last five Financial Years (FY, 2016-17 to 2020-21) the RAF have awarded 100 university bursaries. The total value of these bursaries in each FY was approximately £850,000 to £900,000.

Reticulating Splines