Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on the recruitment systems for the (a) Army, (b) Royal Air Force and (c) Royal Navy in each of the last five years.

The requested information is provided in the following tables:

Royal Navy (RN)

Financial Years 2017-18 to 2021-22 (£ million)

Notes:

1. The RN is unable to provide information on their share of the overall build costs for Defence Recruiting System (DRS).
2. The RN did not commit to extending the DRS contract on 11 March 2022. Therefore, costs in 2020-21 include application development, licence costs and initial set up equipment for an interim recruitment solution provided by PegaSystems which will bridge the gap until the Armed Forces Recruitment Programme goes live in 2025.
3. Costs in 2021-22 include application development costs and licence costs, plus Wi-Fi upgrades in Armed Forces Careers Offices to conduct aptitude testing.

British Army

Calendar Years 2017 to 2021 (£ million)

Notes:

1. Figures for 2017 and 2018 include the Army’s share of the cost of installing the DRS. All figures relate to expenditure on DRS.
2. Figures for 2020 include the cost of purchasing the intellectual property rights to DRS from Capita.
3. Figures for 2021 include the cost of cloud implementation.

Royal Air Force (RAF)

Financial Years 2017-18 to 2021-22 (£ million)

Notes:

1. The RAF is unable to provide information on their share of the overall build costs for DRS.
2. The RAF did not commit to extending the DRS contract on 11 March 2022. Therefore, costs in 2020-21 include application development, licence costs and initial set up equipment for an interim recruitment solution provided by PegaSystems which will bridge the gap until the Armed Forces Recruitment Programme goes live in 2025.
3. Costs in 2021-22 include application development costs and licence costs, plus Wi-Fi upgrades in Armed Forces Careers Offices to conduct aptitude testing.