Written question asked by Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 18 March 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 20 March 2009. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Wednesday, 1 April 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his policy is on encouraging former members of the armed forces to re-enlist; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: The Royal Navy and the RAF currently have no specific campaigns in place to encourage former member of their Services to rejoin, although the Royal Navy has conducted small-scale targeted letter campaigns in the past.In the Army, however, ex-soldiers are actively encouraged to rejoin the Army by the use of non-remunerative measures (maintenance of regimental links, public information activities, and press releases etc.) and remunerative measures in the form of the Army rejoin bounty. The bounty was introduced to offer a partial solution, in conjunction with the use of other manning levers, to fill shortfalls and ranges between £2,000 to £12,000 for those personnel already qualified to rejoin specific pinch point trades at specified ranks.

Secondary information