Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent trends in recruitment and retention of civilian seafarers in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) continues to meet all its Operational Commitments around the globe and continues to steadfastly support Royal Navy (RN) vessels on Operations worldwide.

Recruitment and retention of staff are a priority for the RFA and there are a number of initiatives underway to support this.

For recruitment, the RFA is fostering relationships with universities and colleges to raise awareness of the opportunities available, planning to launch a graduate engineer scheme, sponsoring academic top up schemes to attract newly qualified engineers, and introducing a mechanism for seamless transfer to the RFA for RN service leavers. In addition to this work, the RFA plans to release a focused RFA recruitment marketing campaign.

For retention, the RFA is undertaking a number of initiatives which include: enhancing human resources management with more efficient, digitised processes for claims and reporting; maximising development opportunities; enabling participation in team building and physical activities; introducing a dedicated wellbeing team and creating new and exciting shore posts.