Oral Answers to Questions

Scott Mann Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mark Lancaster]

I have good news for the hon. Gentleman and, indeed, I hope for the House. In January, the total size of the Army, including trained and untrained strength, was 81,750. At the end of April, the total size of the Regular Army, both trained and untrained, had risen to 82,770. That is a rise of more than 1,000 personnel.

[Scott Mann (North Cornwall) (Con)]

17. I welcome the Secretary of State to her place. The Army is below its target strength in part because of the difficulties with and the inefficiency in Capita’s administration. What steps is the Department taking to make the joining process for new recruits easier?

[Mark Lancaster]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point. The issue is not only the application process, but the time of flight from doing that application to actually loading people onto training. I am pleased to say that there has been a recent trial in London and elsewhere looking at this very issue. We have managed to reduce the median time for that time of flight from above 200 days down to a median 109 days. That is a dramatic improvement, and it is just one of the things we are doing to speed up that process.