Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of Capita’s performance in armed forces recruitment since March 2022.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 17 December 2024 to Question 19640 to the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois).

The new Government inherited a crisis in retention and recruitment. We have made it a priority to address this with a series of work streams designed to increase recruitment and renew the contract between the nation and those who serve to improve retention. Recruiting and retention remain one of our highest priorities - the Army/Capita Recruiting Partnering Project is completely focusedon delivering a significant increase in recruitment in 2024-25.

Working in a collaborative partnership, the Army and Capita have robust contract management measures, including Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and penalty deductions where KPIs are not met, to monitor performance against contractual requirements. However, as I am sure the right hon. Member will understand, detailed contractual arrangements, including performance measures, are not routinely disclosed by the Department in order to protect the commercial interests of all parties.