Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve (a) recruitment and (b) retention within the army reserve.

This Government inherited a recruitment crisis, with targets being missed every year for the past 14 years, and is taking decisive action to get recruitment back on track. This has included the largest pay rise to personnel in decades and scrapping 100 outdated policies that slow recruitment down.

Improving recruitment and retention levels is one of the Army’s top priorities, supported by defence.

Measures in place to increase recruitment into the Army Reserves include a sustained digital and physical marketing campaign; an increased focus on professional training and upskilling courses; and improved financial incentives.

A retention strategy has been launched to address barriers to retention through a holistic set of financial and policy initiatives spanning the entire employee lifecycle.

Further announcements will be made in due course, in line with the future Strategic Defence Review.