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Written question asked by Liam Fox (Conservative) on Wednesday, 7 May 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 9 May 2008. It was answered by Derek Twigg (Labour) on Thursday, 15 May 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces: Separation

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the separation rate was for married personnel in each service in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) officers, (b) other ranks and (c) all ranks.
Answer

The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.The following table shows annual divorce rates¹ for Army and RAF UK Regular Forces² personnel for each calendar year since 1997 up until the most recent data available, by officers and ranks. Naval service data are not available as the naval service groups 'separated', 'divorced' and 'widowed' together."¹ Rates are calculated as a percentage of the average married strength during the calendar years. The term 'divorce' includes 'decree absolute' and 'marriage annulled'. It excludes 'decree nisi' and individuals who are separated.""² UK regular forces includes nursing services and excludes full-time reserve service personnel, Ghurkhas, the Home Service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment and mobilised reservists. It includes trained and untrained personnel."

Percentage
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006¹, ²
Army²
All 4— 4— 2.1 2.3 2.2 2.6 2.4 2.4 2.1 1.9
Officers 4— 4— 0.9 1.1 0.9 1.4 1.1 1.0 1.1 1.1
Ranks 4— 4— 2.3 2.5 2.5 2.9 2.7 2.7 2.4 2.1
RAF
All 4— 1.6 1.6 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.7 1.9 1.9 4—
Officers 4— 1.0 0.9 1.4 1.5 1.3 1.1 1.2 1.5 4—
Ranks 4— 1.8 1.8 1.9 1.9 2.0 1.8 2.0 1.8 4—
¹ Figures for 2006 are for the most recently available 12 months which cover the period up to 1 December 2006.
² Following the phased introduction of a new personnel administration system, marital status data are no longer available. This table shows the most recently available data.
³ For the years 1999, 2000 and 2001, annulments are excluded from the calculations for divorce rates, as the information was not available, however the remaining years do include annulments in their calculation.
4 Denotes data is unavailable.
Note:
Percentages are calculated from unrounded figures and are shown to one decimal place.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
475 c1707-8W; 205128
Session
2007-08
Subjects
Armed forces Separation
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk