Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) cadet forces, and (2) combined cadet forces, are available in schools; what is the breakdown of the types of schools that operate such forces; and what is the (a) number of girls involved, and the (b) total number of young people involved.

The Ministry of Defence sponsors 504 cadet units in schools across the UK. The vast majority of these are Combined Cadet Force (CCF) contingents which contain one or more sections from the Army, Royal Navy, Royal Marines, or Royal Air Force CCFs. Instead of CCF contingents, a small number of schools have Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) or Army Cadet Force (ACF) units or, in Scotland only, Linked Detachment units.

Of these 504 cadet units, 474 are CCF contingents, 20 are SCC units, four are ACF units, and six are Linked Detachment units (five ACF units and one Air Training Corps unit). 303 (60%) are in state sector schools and 201 (40%) are in schools in the independent sector.

There are 46,070 cadets in the CCF, of whom 16,380 (36%) are female. In community cadet units, there are a total of 74,040 cadets of whom 24,780 (33%) are female (all figures are as at 1 April 2021).