Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to launch a new recruitment programme for the armed forces in response to the situation in Ukraine.

The Armed Forces continue to meet all their current commitments, keeping the country and its interests safe, and the Government remains committed to ensuring that this country has the world class Armed Forces that it needs and deserves.

Military workforce levels are set in line with capability requirements, as set out in the Integrated Review/Defence Plan, and are reviewed on this basis. The Integrated Review and subsequent Defence Plan consider a wide range of factors including global geopolitics, intelligence, and future technologies. These levels take into account the time required to recruit and train personnel, as well as the skills that will be required and the technology that will be available. Recruitment targets are subsequently set to ensure Defence recruits the right number of people to fulfil the roles required to deliver Defence outputs as set out in the Defence Plan.