Lord Campbell of Pittenweem – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Campbell of Pittenweem on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 8 February (HL5631), what measures they are taking to address the shortfall of personnel in (1) the regular, and (2) the reserve, battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Earl Howe

The Army continues to offer exciting opportunities to young people. Over 7,800 new recruits joined the regular Army in financial year 2014-15 with intake increasing during financial year 2015-16, up to 29 February 2016 7,260 have joined the army of which, 175 Regulars and 140 Reserves have joined the Battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

There are two national recruitment campaigns currently running. The Army’s ‘A Better You’ for soldiers continues throughout 2016. After a principal focus on Regulars between June and March there will be a special emphasis on reserve-specific recruiting in April to June, September to October and January to February 2017. ‘A Better You’ will continue through the year with the reserve message forming an important aspect of the overarching campaign.

The Army’s current officer recruiting campaign, ‘With Heart. With Mind’, is aimed at attracting potential officer candidates into regular and reserve service. ‘With Heart. With Mind’ will have a specific emphasis on reserve officers during the period of March to July 2016, and again in November.

The national campaigns continue to be supported by regional level efforts. During financial year 2015-16 there were over 2,000 community engagement events in Scotland and nearly 300 targeted recruitment events.