Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his speech at the First Sea Lord’s Sea Power conference on 14 May 2024, what the average time is to process an application to join the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy (RN) is focussed on reducing the amount of time needed to complete the recruiting process and has streamlined its processes to that end. The Secretary of State’s speech referenced the average time taken to bid for entry only for those who have applied for Regular Royal Navy Other Ranks (OR) roles since September 2023. Please note that the time of applications will vary based on role and context. To disaggregate and calculate averages from the information available to the RN as a whole, sourcing the requested information would take a disproportionate amount of time and cost to collate.