Armed Forces: Recruitment and Retention

What steps his Department is taking to recruit and retain armed forces personnel.

We have a range of measures supporting recruitment and retention, and continue to refine the armed forces offer. Measures include competitive pay, financial incentives, flexible service, and retention-positive accommodation programmes.

What is the Minister’s estimate of the quality of new recruits? Hopefully they are better than we were.

I can safely assure my right hon. Friend that standards have risen significantly since he and I were accepted into the military. We make no bones about it: the standards to get into our military are some of the highest in comparison with our peer nations. We employ some of the finest people this nation has to offer, and under this Government we are seeing a conscious shift towards looking after them and valuing them as our finest asset.