Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average time was between the submission of an application to join the regular or reserve forces and an interview in the last twelve months.

The following information has been provided by the single Services.

Naval Service

The table below shows the average time taken (in days) between receipt of application and interview date between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Notes:

1. Figures are a single service estimate and have not been validated by Analysis (Navy). Figures may not be reflective of Official Statistics. These figures cannot be compared to previously published application figures.
2. The recruitment system changed in April last year so it has not been possible to align with information on the Joint Personnel Administration system. That also means the three services may not be aligned in what has been provided. Therefore, Royal Navy application data cannot be compared to Army or Royal Air Force.
3. The selection process for Officers has been revised significantly over the last year, therefore it is not possible to derive any meaningful data for this population. Figures for Officers have not been supplied and therefore are not included in the Total.
4. Average time taken is calculated as Mean days between application receipt and a date set for interview, where interview dates were set between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

British Army

The table below shows the total applications and Time of Flight Average from Application to Army Brief and Individual Candidate Discussion, by stream.

Notes:

1. Averages have been calculated using data from 1 April 2022 to 1 March 2023 and have been calculated using the mean.
2. Each service has a different set of intake pathways and representative calculations have necessarily been made using the following parameters for Army: time taken from application to the Army Brief and Individual Candidate Discussion.
3. There are several variables that may impact the time it takes to progress through the recruitment pipeline, including but are not limited to, timely individual participation in the recruitment process, medical/fitness issues, aptitude testing success, and availability of training places.
4. The recruitment process for Officers can take significantly longer given that candidates can go to university between application and arriving at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Royal Air Force (RAF)

The table below shows the average time (in days) between application and first interview for the RAF Regular and Reserve Forces in recruiting year 2022-23.

Notes:

1. Figures are a single service estimate and have not been validated by Analysis (RAF). Figures may not be reflective of Official Statistics. These figures cannot be compared to previously published application figures.
2. Averages have been calculated using data from 1 April 2022 to 1 March 2023 and have been calculated using the mean.