Almost 60,000 applications to join the British armed forces have been rejected on medical grounds since July 2024, according to new figures released by the Ministry of Defence.
In a written parliamentary answer to Conservative MP James Cartlidge, Defence Minister Louise Sandher-Jones said a total of 59,010 applications across the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy were rejected for medical reasons between 5 July 2024 and 31 January 2026.
The Army accounted for the vast majority of rejections, with 45,680 applications declined on medical grounds during the period. The Royal Air Force rejected 12,310 applications, while the Royal Navy rejected 1,020.
The figures relate to rejected applications rather than individual people. The MOD said a single applicant can apply more than once and may be rejected multiple times.
“These figures represent the number of applications rejected and not the number of people rejected; one applicant can apply (and be rejected) multiple times,” the minister said.
The data also covers applications rejected within the specified period regardless of when the original application was submitted. Medical eligibility is one of several stages in the armed forces recruitment process. Applicants must meet health standards designed to ensure personnel are able to undertake military training and operational duties, which can include strenuous physical activity, deployments to austere environments and exposure to combat conditions.
The figures come amid continuing political and military attention on recruitment and retention across the armed forces. In recent years the services have faced challenges in maintaining personnel numbers while modernising recruitment processes and expanding outreach to new candidate groups.
Given the obesity crisis in the U.K. I wonder what percentage were down to being overweight and/ or just being physically unfit due to lack of exercise.
possibly none as that would be a fail on the physical fitness test rather than the medical test I’d think. No breakdown of reasons is given here so we don’t know why those people were rejected or if the rejections were lifelong or time limited. Neither do we know of those that were time limited whether they reapplied at a later date. So the data is rather meaningless unfortunately.
thinking about it further the really big thing we don’t have here is how many overall applications had medical assessments, so we can’t convert this into any sense of the percentage of medical fails.
Almost all the rejections are caused by the applicant ticking some box on a form and the CRAPITA computer saying no because checking that a basic medial condition like eczema when you were a child won’t affect your ability to sit in an armoured vehicle controlling a gun with a joystick.
Come to think of it just how sick or disabled do you have to be to do 50% of the jobs in the army.
Rember the days when people joined the army to get fit. Given the vast majority of jobs in the army involve sitting on your ass it seems daft to me they reject so many candidates. Better to have a basic medial requirement to get people in then have them pass more strenuous medicals of they apply for specific jobs like light infantry.
We managed to fight two world wars with a medial exam that involved little more than coughing while someone held a stethoscope to your chest.
If the army thinks we are near a state of war (which is keeps screaming about) then why is it turning away 45,000 recruits in two years.
Yes, you’re correct, we did fight 2 Wirld Wars with less stringent medical assessments than todays Armed Forces. However, our fathers and Grand Fathers weren’t driven to school daily and survive on a diet of convenience foods and caffeinated drinks. Councils hadn’t sold off school sports fields for building land and news wasn’t fed to the public on a 15min loop, scaring the bejesus out of parents who cannot complete a simple risk assessment, and believe that every 2nd male is a child molesting murderer.
We cannot blame the effect when the cause continues unchecked…
the MOD should have a set of fitness centres (perhaps using the reserve facilities) to get people fit enough to join. We need to understand times have Changed and potential recruits need help
60k applications is like 20% of all applications through this period. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of medical conditions as some of the stuff on social media is silly (I broke my leg when I was 11 = refused)
My view is if they want to join – let them join and see if they can hack it (outside of serious medical conditions that could result in death)
The issue isn’t physical fitness on joining. It is medical conditions which is often a completely different thing. Many candidates have been rejected for having hayfever and for having had teenage acne and childhood asthma.
When I joined the army in 1975 there was a huge number of joiners who were not fit. Not an issue. PT is done fron Day1 – you soon get fit.
Being overweight shouldn’t cause a medical rejection. I was slightly overweight when I applied and they told me to come back once I’d lost it, application was paused rather than rejected.
This was before Crapita, mind.
Still refusing for things like Hayfever think. I lied and never mentioned the hayfever served regardless. They are very strict with medical.
You have to be super fit to pilot a drone I’m told.