To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress has been made on (a) bringing the defence recruiting system up to full operating capability and (b) meeting recruitment targets.
Answered on
24 July 2018
Capita, working closely with all three single Services, has rectified all significant Defence Recruiting System (DRS) defects identified since it went live in November 2017. Some remaining issues relating to DRS interfaces with existing Ministry of Defence IT systems are not impacting on the ability of candidates to apply and join the Armed Forces and will be resolved soon. Application numbers have returned to pre-DRS levels.
The Army recruited over 9,000 people (Regular and Reserves) in 2017-18 and application numbers continue to perform strongly, supported by the 'Belonging' marketing campaign. The focus is now on improving the application to enlistment conversion rate. Working with Capita, the Army has implemented a new operating model which is less centralised and provides increased support to candidates. The Army is also taking steps to reduce the time it takes a candidate to move from application to being allocated a training place.
I continue to monitor the situation closely.