The British Army continues to attract strong interest from Commonwealth citizens, but recruitment for these applicants is currently paused due to an overwhelming number of applications during the last intake window, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Responding to a written question from Jim Shannon MP (DUP – Strangford), Defence Minister Luke Pollard confirmed that the Army had re-opened its Commonwealth recruitment scheme in August 2024 under a targeted initiative. That window, available only for select roles including Musicians, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Royal Engineer Technicians and Tradesmen, and the Parachute Regiment, received a “high volume of applications” from across the Commonwealth.
“Commonwealth citizens have long made a valued contribution to the British Army and continue to be an important part of its structure and capability,” said Mr Pollard.
Under current policy, the Army caps Basic Training starts for Commonwealth applicants at 1,000 per year and limits representation to 15% of any individual cap badge. These measures are designed to maintain operational balance and manage intake capacity.
The Minister said that while recruitment of Commonwealth citizens remains under regular review, “the Commonwealth recruiting pipeline is forecast to remain closed in the medium term” while applications from the 2024–25 window are still being processed by Capita, the Army’s recruitment partner.
The Ministry of Defence also confirmed it is working in coordination with the Home Office to ensure Commonwealth personnel and their families benefit from tailored immigration pathways. These provisions allow service personnel to live, work, and settle in the UK, with eligibility for eventual British citizenship.
Despite the temporary pause in new applications, the British Army continues to recognise and rely on the contribution of Commonwealth citizens as part of its global recruitment model. Future reopening of the pipeline will depend on how current applications are processed and evolving operational needs.
At a time when we have lost control of our borders and have unfettered net migration into the UK why the hell are we worried about recruitment caps from commonwealth nations? That’s ridiculous.
The armed forces should look to incorporate and welcome those individuals into their ranks, especially as there is a recruitment crises and harness their commitment, hard work, dedication and unique character.
Couldn’t agree more.
Your argument is valid about letting commonwealth citizens into the military but why limit it to the armed forces? Couldn’t the same argument be made about the NHS for example?
If it weren’t for Commonwealth and immigration from other nations the NHS would cease to function.
That’s my thinking too. We should control our borders and decide who comes in but we can’t cut the supply of migrants off. Our birth rate is 1.57 per woman when it needs to be 2.1 to sustain the population. No migrants = no country in a few decades
👍
Let’s face facts – in the ‘tulip’ period of the 25years we have let our guard down and it’s near irreversible with the same management system.
If you had 3 armies .
1 rainbow Army
1 Female Army
1 Male Army
Who is your Money on ?
Exactly.
With regard to the article above – expect a few loose bolts and nuts here and there as I would expect the Army has now been infiltrated and probably has for a long time. I hope I am wrong.
Think it would be worth having a separate naval intake cap for Australia… having mixed crews on British subs would start a cadre of naval personnel getting used to working on nuclear systems for the future.
Would like to see another battalion of Ghurkas…
Recruiting from overseas is all very nice for Army recruiting figures, but does nothing for the countries these soldiers are coming from: I’m sure their armed forces would rather have those recruits (see also NHS, care homes, construction, public transport workers etc).
That’s why I am anti-immigration in all its modern forms: it does no good to either country, and reinforces social and economic inequalities between rich and poor areas of the globe. It’s also neo-colonialism in its dishonest form – extracting another country’s human resources in an unequal rigged game, whether they are Premier League footballers or care home workers.
I remember speaking to an RAMC sergeant who was running a Combat Medic course during pre-Op Telic training for our RAF Regt Squadron. I remarked that no wonder the Army rugby team always beat the RAF, because the whole team were Fijian soldiers. He answered: “Yeah, the army will become one of those jobs white people don’t want to do anymore.”
….which later became true in the case of the later amalgamation of all the Scottish infantry regiments into one: the Brigadier-General in charge of that process was quoted in Soldier magazine part of the reason they in particular had been selected for amalgamation was they had exceeded their quota of Commonwealth citizens within their ranks.
But then a country whose people expect someone else’s children to defend it deserves to be overrun by its enemies, and have their laws, culture and beliefs imposed upon it. 🤔
I’m comfortable with the cap.
It is the British Army, after all.