Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will estimate (a) the savings generated by each branch of the armed forces having separate recruiting programmes and (b) the annual cost of each such programme.

Each branch of the Armed Forces has a distinctive brand that needs to be marketed separately in order to attract the best candidates.

Capturing the cost of recruiting across the Armed Forces is a complex and resource-intensive task. For financial year (FY) 2010-11, when both the recruitment budget and recruitment targets were below normal levels, these calculations were not carried out. The costs of recruiting programmes for FYs 2009-10, 2011-12 and 2012-13 are set out in the following table. The cost of recruiting in FY 2013-14 will be available in early 2015.

As reductions have been made to force levels recruitment levels have been adjusted but not stopped as the Services are required to keep recruiting to maintain the right skills.