Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help improve recruitment and retention in the Armed Forces.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The current Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and retention from the last administration.
The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) 2025 is clear that Defence must now meet the longstanding challenge of recruiting and retaining new generations with different requirements. We are committed to the vision that long-term success depends on reconnecting society with the Armed Forces and the purpose of Defence, and for recruitment the focus should be on speed, drastically shortening the period between applicants expressing interest and joining.
To achieve this, Defence will offer novel ways of entry into the Armed Forces that attract more people from a wider range of backgrounds. The Army and Navy are developing short term employment opportunities - “gap year” schemes - for young men and women across a variety of exciting roles that will upskill, provide apprenticeships, and a flavour of life in the Armed Forces.
Full plans will be announced in due course now that we have published the SDR, but we have already introduced several initiatives to improve recruitment including pay increases for new recruits and existing personnel, the scrapping of outdated medical policies, the implementation of a direct-entry cyber pathway and the setting of ambitions to make conditional offers of employment and provisional training start dates in much shorter time. All of these have achieved results; year on year there are now increased applications to the Armed Forces, increased inflow by 19% – including exceeded recruitment targets by the Royal Navy – and at the same time we have reduced outflow by 7%.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if his Department will make an assessment of the suitability of the appointment of General Sir Gwyn Jenkins as First Sea Lord.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
General Jenkins is a proven leader with a distinguished career in both the military and at the core of Government. He brings with him a wealth of operational and organisational expertise and he will continue the modernisation of the Royal Navy, ensuring it can meet future threats and continue to safeguard our nation’s security and prosperity.
As with all Defence appointments at this seniority, there was a rigorous selection process involving a panel with the Secretary of State, the Permanent Secretary, a Non-Executive Director and an independent panel member. Final approval to appoint was granted by the Prime Minister and the King.