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Written question asked by Lord Goodlad (Conservative) on Monday, 5 November 2018, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 November 2018. It was answered by Earl Howe (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 November 2018 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces: Foreign Nationals

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have a policy towards the recruitment of Fijians into the British Armed Forces.

Answer

To be eligible to join the British Armed Forces an individual must be a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen, either as a sole or dual national. As Fiji is a member of the Commonwealth, its citizens are eligible to apply to join. There is no recruitment process specifically for Fijian nationals. All British, Irish and Commonwealth nationals are required to make an online application and, if successful, will then go through the recruitment and selection assessment process in the UK for the Service they are applying to join.

Information held by the Ministry of Defence on the numbers of Regular personnel who reported a Fijian nationality on joining the British Armed Forces in each Financial Year (FY) since 1998-99 is provided in the following table.

Number of Regular personnel reporting a Fijian nationality on intake to the British Armed Forces (FYs 1998-99 to 2017-18)

FY

Royal Navy/Royal Marines

Army

Royal Air Force (RAF)

Total

2017-18

~

160

~

160

2016-17

-

70

~

70

2015-16

-

10

~

10

2014-15

~

10

-

10

2013-14

10

20

-

20

2012-13

~

50

-

50

2011-12

~

60

~

70

2010-11

10

30

-

40

2009-10

20

30

-

50

2008-09

30

140

~

170

2007-08

20

220

-

240

2006-07

..

20

~

20

2005-06

..

110

..

110

2004-05

..

220

..

220

2003-04

..

280

..

280

2002-03

..

470

..

470

2001-02

..

490

..

490

2000-01

..

260

..

260

1999-00

..

320

..

320

1998-99

..

20

..

20

Total

110

2,980

10

3,100

Notes:

  1. Nationality is not part of the Royal Navy/Royal Marines and RAF legacy datasets (data held prior to the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration System) and as such figures for these Services are included only from 2007-08 for Royal Navy/Royal Marines and 2006-07 for RAF.
  1. The declaration rate for nationality on intake for FY 2017-18 is 99.1%. Some personnel will declare their nationality after intake; figures in this table show nationality declared at intake.
  1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. ‘~’ indicates a number less than 5. ‘-‘ indicates zero.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL11246
Session
2017-19
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Armed forces Foreign nationals Recruitment Fiji
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk