Written question asked by Kevin McNamara (Labour) on Monday, 9 June 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 13 June 2003. It was answered by Lord Moonie (Labour) on Friday, 13 June 2003 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent research he has commissioned into the psychological profiles of new recruits to the army.

Answer: Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent research he has commissioned into the psychological profiles of new recruits to the Army. [118955] Dr. Moonie: It is already the Army's practice to build up a personal profile of an individual during the recruiting and selection process, to better assign that individual to an appropriate career employment group. Action is in hand to allow existing civilian medical records to be made available to the Army medical authorities at an early stage of training to allow more thorough medical/psychological screening to help reduce the incidence of injury and failure in training. The Army has recently evaluated a number of commercial tests of motivation and personality, but the results were inconclusive. However, a longer-term three- year research project is in the planning stage to identify a suitable test or tests.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 118955; 406 c1113W;406 c1115W
Session: 2002-03
Subjects: Army Recruitment Medical records Screening Testing Psychometric testing
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk