Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) of his Department's civilian personnel, (b) Armed Forces personnel and (c) external private contractors work on recruitment for the (i) Royal Navy, (ii) British Army, (iii) Royal Air Force and (iv) Royal Marines.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) full time and (b) reservist Armed Forces personnel are working on recruitment for the (i) British Army, (ii) Royal Navy, (iii) RAF and (iv) Royal Marines as of 13 May 2024.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total value is of the contracts managed by Defence Business Services.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list all the contracts managed by Defence Business Services.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 25 July 2023 to Question 194671, what his Department's recruitment targets for the armed forces are for 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Recruitment targets for Regular Serving personnel in 2024-25 currently are summarised below:
Royal Navy
Officers 450
Sailors 2,864
Army
Officers 677
Soldiers 9,800
Royal Air Force
Officers 462
Aviators 2,615
In my answers to Questions 7264, 8358, 12118 and 17290, I incorrectly stated that there were no recruitment targets for officers.
I have therefore provided below the historic Army recruitment targets for officers, as contained within the Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP) Demand Plan. The Plan reflects the number of personnel that Capita are directed to recruit annually. The figures include Direct Entrants and Professionally Qualified Officers.
The RPP started in 2012. Please note that data pre-dating 2014 could not be accessed in the time available.
Year | OF Reg | OF Res |
14-15 | 709 | 362 |
15-16 | 742 | 368 |
16-17 | 747 | 318 |
17-18 | 713 | 372 |
18-19 | 696 | 241 |
19-20 | 713 | 315 |
20-21 | 700 | 230 |
21-22 | 688 | 125 |
22-23 | 610 | 220 |
23-24 | 644 | 220 |
In relation to the question asking for the target for recruitment of officers into the British Army for each of the first three quarters in the 2023-24 financial year; please note that OF in-year targets are based on the intakes to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), of which there are three a year. The following reflects the target by intake, rather than quarter.
RY | Target |
RY23 1 | 152 |
RY23 2 | 227 |
RY23 3 | 152 |
Data is sourced from Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command and reflect single Service estimates.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much the Department has spent on the Ajax programme as of 14 May 2024.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
As of 14 May 2024, £4.096 billion has been paid against the General Dynamics Ajax contract milestone payment plan.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many programme milestones the Ajax programme has (a) passed and (b) missed since January 2023.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Since January 2023, one Ajax programme milestone has been successfully achieved and no programme milestones have been missed.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of when Ajax will have (a) initial and (b) full operating capability.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Regarding Ajax’s Initial Operating Capability, I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him 16 January 2024 to Question 9150. Ajax’s Full Operating Capability is expected to be achieved between October 2028 and September 2029.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications were made to join the Maritime Reserves in each month since January 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Below are the requested figures counted to September 2023. Due to how recruiting data is collected, these are the most up to date figures.
Application | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep |
Regular | 3060 | 2575 | 2434 | 1793 | 1883 | 2028 | 2573 | 2470 | 1837 |
Reserve | 238 | 225 | 217 | 185 | 151 | 193 | 292 | 280 | 213 |
Figures define an application as an online application submitted by an individual and accepted by the Recruit Information Technology System, the application system.
With reference to the Rt Hon Gentleman’s similar WPQ of 6 Mar 24, note that the definition used to identify applications before Sept 2017 differs from that used after. Previously an application would be counted after a candidate had submitted an Armed Forces Career Office Form 4 and sat the Recruit Test. As a result, application data after Sept 2017 is not comparable to application data prior to Sept 2017.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications were received to join the full time Royal Navy in each month since January 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Below are the requested figures counted to September 2023. Due to how recruiting data is collected, these are the most up to date figures.
Application | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep |
Regular | 3060 | 2575 | 2434 | 1793 | 1883 | 2028 | 2573 | 2470 | 1837 |
Reserve | 238 | 225 | 217 | 185 | 151 | 193 | 292 | 280 | 213 |
Figures define an application as an online application submitted by an individual and accepted by the Recruit Information Technology System, the application system.
With reference to the Rt Hon Gentleman’s similar WPQ of 6 Mar 24, note that the definition used to identify applications before Sept 2017 differs from that used after. Previously an application would be counted after a candidate had submitted an Armed Forces Career Office Form 4 and sat the Recruit Test. As a result, application data after Sept 2017 is not comparable to application data prior to Sept 2017.