Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for people who pass the recruitment process for the British Armed Forces before they receive a job offer.

Each Service collates this information in different ways and so the figures are not comparable.

Naval Service (Royal Navy and Royal Marines)

During Recruiting Year (RY) 2019-20, the average (mean) time between a recruiter bidding for a candidate to get an entry date and the allocation of an entry date was 22 days as a total average for Officers and Ratings/Other Ranks.

Army

The average (median) time between the successful completion of an assessment centre and being allocated a training start date during the 2019-20 RY, (1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020) for Other Ranks was 51 days. This is not collated for Officers.

Royal Air Force (RAF)

During Financial Year 2019-20, the average (median) wait time for Officer and Other Ranks candidates who completed the RAF recruiting process to receive a job offer was between two and three working days.