Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Gordon Prentice (Labour). It was answered on Monday, 21 July 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces (Recruitment and Retention)

Question: I know that we have always recruited soldiers and sailors from the Commonwealth, but we are relying on those countries increasingly. Is there an upper limit on the number of people whom we take from Commonwealth countries?

Answer: There has been an increase in soldiers from foreign and Commonwealth countries in recent years, as my hon. Friend knows, but to say that we are totally reliant on them is wrong. We have traditionally recruited from many parts of the world, including parts of Africa and Fiji, and there are the Gurkha regiments, too. We are talking about long and historic connections with our armed forces, and I do not think that anybody thinks that we ought to pull back from them.

Secondary information