Armed Forces Act 1971

63 Minimum age for enlistment or entry without parental etc consent

(1) The following subsection shall be substituted for subsection (5) of section 2 of the Army Act 1955 and also for subsection (5) of section 2 of the Air Force Act 1955 (under which the " appropriate minimum age " , being the age below which a person may not be enlisted without certain consents, means the age of seventeen years and six months or, in such classes of case as may be prescribed, the age of seventeen years):—

“(5) In this Part of this Act the expression ' appropriate minimum age' means the age of eighteen or, in a case falling within any class for which a lower age is for the time being prescribed, that lower age.”.

(2) Section 9(3) of the [1966 c. 45.] Armed Forces Act 1966 (which defines " appropriate minimum age " similarly for the purposes of entry into the Royal Navy) shall be amended so as to correspond with the provision set out in subsection (1) above, that is to say, by substituting for the words from " the age of seventeen years and six months " to the end the words " the age of eighteen or, in a case falling within any class for which a lower age is for the time being prescribed by regulations of the Defence Council, that lower age ".

(3) Paragraph 9 of Schedule 7 to the [1955 c. 18.] Army Act 1955 (which substitutes references to the age of 17 for references to the appropriate minimum age in Part I of that Act as it applies to marines) shall cease to have effect.