Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what was the average length of time taken between the point of application to join (a) the army, (b) the Royal Navy, (c) the RAF and attestation in each year since 1997.

The new Government inherited a crisis in recruitment. We have made it a priority to address this with a series of work streams designed to increase recruitment and renew the contract between the nation and those who serve to improve retention.

Many factors affect the time taken to proceed through the recruiting pipeline. Many candidates proceed much faster than the average when they are well prepared and ready to move quickly. Others take longer, for reasons including:

• Delays in the receipt of primary healthcare records.
• Medical deferment for those requiring time to get medically fit.
• The need to align the start of basic of training with trade training.
• A candidate’s current domestic, employment and housing situation.
• A candidate’s choice regarding pace and level of engagement.

Numerical information is provided in the table below, noting that direct comparisons between each Service should be avoided due to the different processes in use; for example, recruits to the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force must achieve a Security Check level of security clearance before joining. In the time available to answer a Parliamentary Question, it has not been possible to provide information for each requested year.

Average Time of Flight (days) taken between Application and Basic Training Starts for Regular Other Ranks UK Nationals between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2024

Source: Analysis (Tri-Service)

Table Notes:

1. Time of Flight is defined as the time passed in days between the date of application and the date of intake to the untrained strength. The symbol “..” denotes that information is not available.
2. Average Time of Flight is expressed as the median number of days, meaning that Time of Flight for half of all candidates is shorter than the figures provided, and half is longer. For example, half of RN/RM candidates took up to 279 days in the 12 months ending 30 September 2024, with half taking longer.
3. Application data is taken from the Defence Recruitment System and Recruitment IT System (RN and RAF) and matched to intake data from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system and should reflect time of entry to training.
4. Figures may differ from information reported elsewhere by single Service recruiting teams, which are intended to support operational decision-makers monitoring operational and pipeline performance and are therefore calculated using differing methodologies.
5. Applications from non-UK candidates are excluded, with Nationality as declared on JPA. Army figures include applications from Irish personnel but exclude applications from other countries and those applicants without a known nationality.
6. For a small number of Navy personnel, application date is recorded as after their intake date, likely due to outflowing and re-joining the Service. These personnel have been excluded from calculations.
7. When an individual has multiple applications to the RAF or RN/RM, the applications closest before their intake was used as the application submission date.
8. Where an application date is not held in the data or an application cannot be matched to intake, such as where there is no corresponding service number or National Insurance number, the case is excluded.