Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the target for recruitment of (a) officers and (b) other ranks in the British army was in 2022-23.

I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 January to Question 7264 from the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Dearne (Mr Healey) which shows the Basic Training Starts (BTS) Targets for British Army Other Ranks for financial year 2022-23.

Demand targets for BTS are set annually. Quarterly targets are used for internal guidance and they can change in-year in order to meet the annual target.

The table below shows those internal targets for the first three quarters of 2023-24:

There are no targets for Officers BTS.

Notes/caveats:

1. These figures are for the Regular Army Only and therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service, Mobilised Reserves, Army Reserve and all other Reserves, but includes those personnel that have transferred from GURTAM to UKTAP.
2. Basic Training Start figures only include personnel who entered Phase 1 training.
3. 2023-24 Quarter 1 includes figures from 01 April 2023 to 30 June 2023.
4. 2023-24 Quarter 2 includes figures from 01 July 2023 to 30 September 2023.
5. 2023-24 Quarter 3 includes figures from 01 October 2023 to 31 December 2023
6. Figures have been rounded to 10 for presentational purposes; numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
7. Totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not appear to be the sum of their parts.