Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to tackle challenges in meeting military recruitment targets.

The new Government is focused upon improving Armed Forces recruitment, modernising and refining our policies and processes to attract the best possible talent.

Recent policies have included a 35% pay increase for new recruits; one of the largest pay increases in the last 20 years for existing personnel; scrapping over 100 outdated medical policies; a commitment to create a new military direct-entry cyber pathway; and setting an ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days.

These activities and their impacts will inform the development of the Armed Forces Recruitment Service which is being implemented to further improve the speed with which highly motivated and capable people can join our Armed Forces.