The Army recruitment website has now been nonfunctional for three weeks.

An Army applicant contacted me this morning to let me know that the Army recruitment system was still nonfunctional, weeks after a data breach forced a temporary closure. I was told:

“The whole recruitment system is down. This means that applications cannot be made or moved forward. Candidates are also unable to receive updates on how far their application is through the pipeline. This could cause serious issues to recruitment as one, it could create a massive backlog, and two, interest could be lost due to time constraints.”

My source also told me that he’s currently stuck at the medical stage, as he is in the process of moving from regular to reserve. medical.

“All I need to do is redo my medical. However, I have been unable to move through the medical process because the staff at the recruitment centre cannot access the system.”

When doing so, he and thousands of others are met with the message:

“WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING SOME TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH THE ARMY RECRUITMENT SYSTEM. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS SURROUNDING YOUR APPLICATION OR PROGRESSION THROUGH THE RECRUITING PIPELINE PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER 0345 600 8080 OR CONTACT YOUR RECRUITER.”

The Register reported last month that the Ministry of Defence suspended online application and support services for the British Army’s Capita-run Defence Recruitment System and after a data breach, with hackers threatening to release application data.

The website was shut down on the 14th of March and remains closed today.

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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval defence technology and cyber security matters.
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andy
andy
1 year ago

should never have privatised it, and certainly should not have got rid of the recruting offices and the regimental support teams that went with them, mind the way we have been treated by HMG i would not recomend anyone to join, it,s all fine doing the job but afterwards they quick to hang you out for carrying out orders.

farouk
farouk
1 year ago

I was actually in officer recruiting just before the army migrated over to Capita and with the short time I had with the previous recruiting staff (All civies) I was most impressed with how they went about their jobs, even when they had been relocated to other civy jobs around the camp, if I had any issues they were more than happy to help resolve them for me. Potential officers attend Westbury for assessment and before capita, if I had any issues , I could call the girls there and sort out things. Medicals/Docs/ travel / etc, that is the benefit of… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by farouk
Nicholas
Nicholas
1 year ago
Reply to  farouk

Selling off defence estates hasn’t been a huge success either, unless you count moving large quantities of real estate from public to private for peanuts. Anyone here seen and improvement in forces housing standards? (not a retorical question)

Supportive Bloke
Supportive Bloke
1 year ago
Reply to  farouk

For God’s sake what has acne got to do with ability to serve? I get the gas mask thing but really…this isn’t WWI. It is the inner drive and ability that matters.

Most of the younger recruits used to have acne by default…..

i knew a girl who was an brilliant athlete, broke her leg, hardly had the thing healed then she went through Sandhust and then passed Selection not long after that.

Levi Goldsteinberg
Levi Goldsteinberg
1 year ago

Incredible. While the Navy and Air Force have made huge progress in sorting out their deficiencies in recent years, the Army seems to get worse and worse

Nicholas
Nicholas
1 year ago

What is going on do you think? Poor leadership from the top and lots of in-fighting?
The poor soldiers on the ground have put up with poor/inappropriate kit for years, resulting in loss of life or severe disability but the Ajax balls up doesn’t seem to be about money. (although the longer it goes on the bigger the compromises as the money dries up). Do the top brass simply not have a clear user requirement or are they simply looking forward to a plumb job with Serco?

Ian
Ian
1 year ago
Reply to  Nicholas

Political Corruption !!!!!!!

Derek
Derek
1 year ago
Reply to  Ian

Capita has always had the appearance of being a vehicle to move taxpayers money into private funds. Their failure and the 100’s of millions of £’s ‘lost’ when the projects they are involved with fail, should disbar them from any future Government tendering. The fact that it doesn’t creates a stink all of its own.

Ian
Ian
1 year ago
Reply to  Nicholas

Ajax is the eventual outcome of the FRES programme. Requirements for the platform were altered constantly by top-down edict and the whole programme was allowed to drag on in a state of relative disarray. These kinds of deficiencies seem to be common in the public sector and I blame a lot of it on a lack of real interest by the relevant Ministers.

Patrick
Patrick
1 year ago
Reply to  Ian

Boxer is the outcome of FRES not Ajax, FRES was always meant to be a wheeled vehicle and as such we invested in the development of boxer. Labour cancelled it to save money. Ajax is completely unrelated to FRES.

Graham Moore
Graham Moore
1 year ago

Surely Capita runs the Navy and Air Force recruiting process too?

Sky Blue 1
Sky Blue 1
1 year ago

I wouldn’t be so quick to make that claim. Having served 25 years in the army and now contracting at Navy Command (in the procurement sphere) you may be surprised to learn that the Navy are looking to the army for best practice. The other services are not all as rosey as you would think.

Sailor Blue
Sailor Blue
1 year ago
Reply to  Sky Blue 1

This is b***s&&& I work for Captain Naval Recruiting and we’re quite happy being as far away from Capita as possible. We presently have a working IT system and are perfectly capable of putting new recruits into training. This cannot be said of the Army, or the Recruiting Partnership Programme as it like to be called.

Bulkhead
Bulkhead
1 year ago

Is it April 1st ?

David Steeper
David Steeper
1 year ago
Reply to  Bulkhead

Everyday is April the 1st in the wonderful wacky world of the Army.😳

Last edited 1 year ago by David Steeper
Frank62
Frank62
1 year ago
Reply to  Bulkhead

Under Boris evory day is April fool.

Marked
Marked
1 year ago

Doesn’t matter. They are still hell bent on reducing numbers anyway! Short sighted fools.

Tom Keane
Tom Keane
1 year ago

This is what happens when you subcontract stuff out to private companies, 8 times out of 10. (the other 2 allows for benefit of doubt)

Frank62
Frank62
1 year ago

Privatisations are solely for enabling the rich investers to profit-mine public funds.
Have any of the alledged benefits ever resulted or ended up with the public paying more for getting less?

amin
amin
1 year ago

I have to go to conscription for two years with a small salary. But you -______-

Damo
Damo
1 year ago
Reply to  amin

Yes no conscription here. What’s your point?

amin
amin
1 year ago
Reply to  Damo

My misfortunes

BigH1979
BigH1979
1 year ago

If someone loses interest in joining the Armed Forces because the website has been down for 3 weeks and they can’t be bothered to phone a number then im not going to miss them. My large (19000 employees) company was victim of a cyber attack around xmas 2020 and we are still suffering the consequences….you don’t just turn it off and on again. Im as nostalgic as anyone about the day i walked in off the street and was guided through the whole joining process by a serving, uniformed Sgt. However it was an inefficient use of resources (doubly so… Read more »

Paul42
Paul42
1 year ago
Reply to  BigH1979

Cheaper, does not mean more efficiently, it means cutting every available corner to reduce costs and invariably provided a far poorer service as a result. Private contractors put in cheap bids to take on roles they have no idea about, making promises they can never fulfil……

BigH1979
BigH1979
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul42

Any examples please? All i see here is a website that is down because of a cyber breach. Which would have happened whether it was MOD or civvy run.

Dragonwight
Dragonwight
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul42

Indeed. I have done quite abit of contract work and my experience has been private companies frequently play the numbers. For example being required to meet certain data security standards which they know public bodies rarely have the resources to actually check on. Most of the time it goes unnoticed but occasionally they slip up. I have to laugh that it takes longer today to join up than it did 40 years ago. Apparently that’s efficency.

Graham Moore
Graham Moore
1 year ago
Reply to  BigH1979

For many years Capita has run a rubbish recruiting service, not just now – I hear it has always taken them nearly a year to recruit someone.

Dazed and Confused
Dazed and Confused
1 year ago

Rumour has it that AFRP is under threat (already pushed back to 2025) because the RAF and Navy want nothing to do with it, whilst the Army are pushing for it.

Sailor Blue
Sailor Blue
1 year ago

You’re 100% right here… the Army need a replacement for the Recruitment Partnership Programme. Once you outsource a capability you can never recover it. The Army now has a ‘Hobson Choice’ and must continue with an outsourced solution. If anyone had any sense they’d create a ‘not for profit’ organisation resources by veterans, based on the RN or RAF model.