Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to improve recruitment in the Armed Forces.

We are committed to maintaining the overall size of the Armed Forces. The Services are meeting all their current commitments. To help address Armed Forces manning challenges the Ministry of Defence has introduced its Armed Forces People Programme to modernise the employment offer including scope for flexible working and a new Forces' Accommodation Model. The individual Services have also implemented a wide range of programmes including:

• The Royal Navy/Royal Marines have the Personnel Recovery and Growth Programme which includes initiatives to improve inflow (gains to trained strength); throughflow (changes to training pipelines, promotions and accelerated throughput); and outflow (improving retention and reducing voluntary outflow).

• The Army is implementing improvements to recruitment and training policy and practices; targeted financial retention incentives; and a strategy to attract personnel to re-join the Army. The lifting of the exclusion for women serving in Ground Close Combat roles highlights the commitment to offering maximum opportunity for all.

• The RAF has established Enterprise Collaboration Teams to oversee a range of recruitment initiatives for critical skills groups, including the appointments of Specialist Recruitment Teams for hard to recruit branches and trades, BAME and female personnel. A new initiative has also been introduced to encourage personnel to re-join the Service.