Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they learned from their decision to award Capita a contract to manage army recruitment; and what steps they are taking in response to that learning.

As identified by the National Audit Office in December 2018, responsibility for the challenges faced for Army recruiting lies with both the Army and Capita. Many of these challenges including some of the steps taken to address them are set out in the National Audit Office's report.

The Government has established a Strategic Partnering Programme which monitors performance of companies such as Capita across HMG contracts. This enables those closest to the day-to-day delivery, in this case the recruitment experts within both Capita and the Army, to work together with contract staff to make improvements. The aim is to resolve issues at the operating level using this expertise, rather than escalating the issue.