Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average length of time is between receiving an expression of interest and receiving a formal application and the start of a training programme for a new recruit in the (a) Army and (b) Army Reserve.

In the 12 months ending 1 July 2025, the average time taken between application and untrained entry for UK/Irish Regular Other Ranks was 249 days.

In regard to the average time taken between application and untrained entry for the Army Reserve, this is information is not held centrally and will take some time to collate. I will write to the hon. Member with a response.

Notes/caveats:

1. The figures are for the Regular Army only and therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service, Mobilised Reserves, Army Reserve and all other Reserves.
2. Time of Flight is defined as the time passed in days between the date of application and the date of intake to the untrained strength.
3. Average Time of Flight is expressed as the median number of days. That is, it is the middle value in the dataset when Time of Flight is put in ascending order e.g. half of those that entered the Regular Other Ranks did so in 249 and half took longer.
4. Application data is taken from the Defence Recruitment System and matched to intake data from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system and should reflect time to entry.
5. Army figures differ from Recruiting Group (RG) information reported elsewhere due to differing methodologies. The RG figures are intended to support operational decision-makers monitoring operational and pipeline performance.
6. Applications from non-UK candidates are excluded, with Nationality as declared on JPA. Army figures include applications from Irish personnel but exclude applications from other countries and those applicants without a known nationality.