Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on improving the time taken for new UK armed forces recruits to receive a formal job offer.

The Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and we are focused on improving Armed Forces recruitment. Defence is committed to reducing the time taken for candidates to pass through Armed Forces recruitment processes and enter Service. Recent policies have included setting an ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days if they desire it.

The median time taken to pass through recruitment and enter Service has been significantly reduced from a peak of 475 days in 2022 down to 290 days in 2024, a reduction of 39 per cent, with the individual Services pursuing options to reduce further.

These activities and their impacts will inform the development of the Armed Forces Recruitment Service which is being implemented to further improve the speed with which highly motivated and capable people can join our Armed Forces.