Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what financial schemes there are to incentivise former armed forces personnel to enlist in the Reserves.

The Ministry of Defence is always seeking ways to incentivise Service, not all of which are financial. In recent years a variety of financial incentives of varying degrees have been made available for the recruitment of both Regular and Reserve personnel, including re-joiner payments to encourage ex-Regulars to rejoin either Regular or Reserve Service. Recent financial incentives have included a Royal Navy Recruit Bounty Scheme worth £500 and Army Reserve enlistment schemes worth between £500 and £1,200.

Golden Hello payments of £100,000 for the recruitment of specialised doctors and £50,000 for specialised nurses are available. There are currently no live schemes for Reserve Service enlistment.

The levels of financial incentive for both Regulars and Reserves vary by Service and by trade, but all were location agnostic; numbers of payments have varied according to need and have been generally successful in filling some important roles and trades.

Information on the numbers of people who have claimed a financial incentive in each year since 2020 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.