The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that it will not raise the minimum age of recruitment into the Armed Forces, maintaining the current threshold that allows individuals to join from the age of 16 with parental consent.
In a written response to a parliamentary question from Will Stone MP, Defence Minister Louise Sandher-Jones said there were “no plans” to change the policy. She emphasised that all recruitment under the age of 18 is voluntary and subject to strict safeguards.
“The Armed Forces have no plans to raise the minimum age of recruitment,” she said. “All recruitment into the UK military is voluntary and no young person under the age of 18 years may join our Armed Forces unless their application is accompanied by the formal written consent of their parent or guardian. We take the duty of care towards all recruits seriously, in particular those under 18 years of age.”
The Minister noted that service personnel under 18 are not deployed on hostile operations outside the UK or on missions where they could be exposed to hostilities. “All new recruits, regardless of age, can discharge within their first three to six months of service,” she added.
Sandher-Jones said the policy complies with both domestic and international law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. She also highlighted the educational benefits of early entry, describing it as a legitimate pathway for school leavers.
“The provision of education and training for 16-year-old school leavers not only provides a route into the Armed Forces that complies with government education policy and offers a significant foundation for development, but it also enables access to training in literacy and numeracy, as well as enrolment in apprenticeships,” she said.
The Ministry of Defence pointed to independent oversight of its policies, noting that Ofsted regularly inspects training and welfare provision for young recruits.
From what people say on here, It takes a year from application anyway.
Why would they? I’m not sure what the questioner, ex-Rifles, is getting at.
This will be a planted question by the Labour Party so they can make the statement. I suspect he isn’t trying to make any point himself; they’ll be pre-empting something that was going to be brought up by a lobby group or another party.
Thanks. Makes sense.
OT, but straight from the movies.
In the Independent, a report that Russia says it has foiled a British and Ukrainian plot to steal a Mig31!!! And it’s Kinzel missile
Only this time, it’d be a Russian pilot paid to defect with it rather than Mitchell Gant ( ( Clint Eastwood for those unfamiliar with the 70s film ) infiltrating Biliarsk and stealing the fictional Mig31 Firefox from under the KGBs noses.
Love it.
BTW, I love the fictional Firefox film, and the novel on which it’s based. Firefox Down was even better, but never made it to film.
It read it was inspired due to the late 60s and 70s panic about rumours of a new super Mig25 Foxbat, the Mig31, and the furore over Viktor Belenko who really did defect to Japan in a Foxbat.
I don’t know whether to be frightened or proud that Britain is frequently the bogeyman to the Russians, even if I don’t think there is much truth to what they say. I think the Russians don’t want to portray Ukraine has anything approaching competent so they have to have a shady foreign actor in the background pulling the strings. That increasingly seems to be the UK.
We seem to live rent free in their heads, lets take it as a compliment?
I seem to recall from my time in the Army, having joined at 16 as an Apprentice in REME, that statistically, a greater percentage of those joining before 18 went on to be Senior NCO’s or got commissioned than those who joined as adults. Not sure if there is any current data to either back this up, or show if it is still the case.