Why Is The Army Struggling To Recruit?

Following yesterday's announcement that Capita had failed to bring in fewer than one in 10 of the recruits that the Army needed, we've reached out to find out why you think people aren't signing up.

But before we get to your answers, lets recap on the latest figures.

The Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Mark Poffley, said that in the three months to August, the Army had recruited just 10% of the officer recruits and 7% of the other ranks it needed for 2018-19.

That compared with recruitment 22% of the officers and 20% of other ranks for the Royal Navy, 100% of officers and 10% of other ranks for the Royal Marines, and 56% of officers and 48% of other ranks for the RAF.

Here's what you've been saying online:

Tobias Ellwood MP, Defence Minister for people and veterans says the challenges for recruitment are "very obvious."

Mason Jeynes, who applied for the Armed Forces, told Forces News about his experience:

“I applied roughly two years ago now, all was great to start off, with my candidate support manager was great, always answered the phone, whatever questions I asked she knew the answers. She then left the job which left me without a candidate support manager.

"For about three months after she left, I was constantly trying to get in touch with recruitment. The majority of the time I couldn’t get through and when I did get through I’d ask the same question everytime: when will I be allocated a new candidate support manager?"

Mr Mason said when he finally got a new support manager they were new to the role and he still felt left in the dark.

"It’s got to the stage now where I’m waiting to go back to assessment but when I phone recruitment an operator picks up and when I ask to speak to my support manager they pretty much refuse to put me on the phone to him and insist on solving the issues themselves which they have no idea what’s going on with my application," Mr Mason said.

"I’m currently in the process of writing a formal letter to our Secretary of Defence Mr Williamson to try and shed some light and see if he can explain why the situation is so diabolical,” he added.

One applicant said that the problem they faced was with their medical taking months to complete because of broken equipment.

Another said their medical checks were cancelled:

We asked Capita to talk to us about the issues - they declined but said in a statement that they’re making improvements to the recruitment process and they’re confident they will deliver ‘better outcomes’ for candidates and the Army.

"We continue to introduce improvements to the recruitment process, and we are confident that the changed service we are putting in place will deliver better outcomes for candidates and for the Army.”