Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many visits the armed forces made to state secondary schools in (a) Inverclyde and (b) Scotland in each of the last five years.

Mark Lancaster

The Armed Forces never visit schools for recruitment purposes and would only ever visit a school after being invited by a teacher to support school activities. Similar contributions to schools are made by the Police, Fire, Ambulance and other emergency services. The Armed Forces receive numerous requests from schools each year and the three Services take these opportunities to both explain their role, and to assist schools in teaching valuable skills such as leadership, teamwork and citizenship.

These visits can comprise presentations, citizenship talks, meetings with staff, participation in career events, practice interviews and activities with the students, such as science and maths challenges, and other indoor or outdoor exercises.

Information on the number of visits by the Royal Navy and the Army to secondary schools is presented below, by Financial Year (FY); the category of secondary educational establishment (such as state or independent) is not recorded. Details of visits by the Royal Air Force could not be provided in the time available and I will write to the hon. Member when the information is available.

Royal Navy

Note: 2015-16 to 12 February 2016.

Army

Note: 2015-16 includes events confirmed to the end of March 2016.