Army: Recruitment

(asked on 27th January 2020) - View Source

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.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 30th January 2020

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Total withdrawn or rejected in pipeline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

  • This data has been provided from a single service source rather than official statistics produced by Defence Statistics. This is because Defence Statistics do not start to record individuals until they attend their first day of basic training.
  • Applications include all streams, including Commonwealth, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS) and re-joiner.
  • Rejections/withdrawals are from all streams, including Commonwealth, MPGS and re-joiners.
  • In principle, a rejection arises when a candidate falls short of the required eligibility/assessment, whereas a withdrawal arises due to candidate choice.
  • Of the reasons for a candidate to withdraw/be rejected, the candidate ‘voluntarily disengaging from the process’ was the most common factor.
  • Candidates can voluntarily disengage from the process at any stage of the pipeline. There are circa 500 possible reasons candidates can provide for doing so.

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