Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applicants to enlist in the army did not end up doing so; and for what reason, in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
Data is not available prior to 2013-14 as it was not collated centrally and so is unreliable.
Number of Applicants that did not end up joining the British Army between 1 April 2013 and 30 March 2019 are in the table below
| Recruiting Year | Total withdrawn or rejected in pipeline | Main reason for the “withdrawal/rejection” in pipeline |
| 2013-14 | 58,419 | Candidate Voluntarily disengaging from the process |
| 2014-15 | 79,114 | Candidate Voluntarily disengaging from the process |
| 2015-16 | 77,055 | Candidate Voluntarily disengaging from the process |
| 2016-17 | 120,314 | Candidate Voluntarily disengaging from the process |
| 2017-18 | 80,357 | Candidate Voluntarily disengaging from the process |
| 2018-19 | 116,312 | Candidate Voluntarily disengaging from the process |