Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what work the Government is undertaking to help tackle the backlog of Royal Marine applications.

The Royal Navy and Royal Marines are implementing a range of measures to improve recruitment performance and reduce waiting times for applicants. These include increasing recruitment capacity, introducing more efficient digital recruitment systems, streamlining application processes, improving candidate engagement, and addressing bottlenecks in medical, security vetting and selection stages. The Royal Navy continuously monitors recruitment performance to ensure suitably qualified candidates can progress through the recruitment pipeline as quickly as possible.