The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the annual cap for recruiting non-British Commonwealth citizens into the UK Armed Forces remains fixed at 1,350 individuals across all services, despite a significant surge in applications in recent years.
In response to a Parliamentary Written Question from Ben Obese-Jecty MP, Defence Minister Luke Pollard stated:
“An annual Basic Training Start limit for Commonwealth citizens is applied across the Armed Forces. This is currently set at 1,350 individuals per annum and distributed accordingly: a) 1,000 Army, b) 300 Royal Navy (there is no separate allowance for the Royal Marines), and c) 50 Royal Air Force.”
The figures stand in stark contrast to growing interest from Commonwealth nations. In 2023 alone, the British Army received 16,990 applications from Commonwealth citizens. However, 7,880 of those were rejected and 1,360 voluntarily withdrawn. Similar trends were observed across the other branches.
Between January and September 2023:
- The Royal Navy and Royal Marines received 3,210 applications.
- The Royal Air Force saw 2,890.
- The Army led significantly with 16,990 applications.
Despite the high volume, application success rates remain low. Since 2010, the UK Armed Forces have received more than 157,000 applications from Commonwealth citizens. The Army alone received 122,340 of these, yet over 91,000 applications across all three services were either rejected or withdrawn.
Rejections have been attributed to factors such as unmet eligibility criteria, medical or fitness standards, and failure to obtain security clearance. Withdrawals are often linked to the lengthy application process or changes in personal circumstances.
The enduring interest underscores the appeal of UK military service across the Commonwealth. However, the fixed annual cap on intakes, particularly the 50 places available to the RAF, remains a bottleneck. The MoD has not signalled any change to the cap despite the growing applicant pool.
So what was wrong with the 11/12,000 who wern’t refused or who withdrew? We are all about being “internatiional”, according to the government, accepting thousands of illegal immigrants and paying for them but cannot accept people who want to join our armed forces. Very Stupid.
Yeah, it’s a truly crazy set of circumstances. Commonwealth citizens generally hold the UK in high regard as well, with familiarity of customs, tradition and culture. It’s almost like the government doesn’t want that.
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Some where probably security concerns, but more broadly, I think there’s an argument that the army shouldn’t be majority foreign?
Better than continually shrinking, year on year Dern.
Not really. Without limiting your % of foreign soldiers you effectively end up farming out the only people allowed and equipped to do violence in the country. Mercenary Armies bring some very big drawbacks in terms of long term national stability.
A Commonwealth Brigade? Maybe.
Because you think that creating entire mercenary units would be a better idea?
Why not do pre admission. You have one year to hit these targets and if you do we will accept you
Given that we have shortfall in the number of troops why not simply allow extra commonwealth applications to go through to cover the shortfall in UK recruitment?
Why turn people away if there are unfilled vacancies? We really do excel in creating our own problems!
There have also been 10s of thousands of UK candidates who withdrew due to length of time. It’s been an excuse to keep costs down, even if Capita or now Serco manage a 100% 90-day turnaround tomorrow, the simple fact is the Governments of at least the last 15 years didn’t want personnel numbers maintained, never mind increased. They wanted the opposite and the realities that bring with it be damned. They’ve been able to blame the military, outsourced agencies, the current generation (weaker, fatter, mental health issues, other lies etc.), everything but themselves for the mess.
Hopefully significant personnel increases are identified in the SDR, with a planned 0.1% increase per year it’s unlikely we’ll see that until SDR 2030.
Some of my best soldiers were from the commonwealth.
I can only speak colloquially, but I know a handful of young men who in the last few years have joined up with the RM. They have all commented how many Saffas there were in basic with them. Frankly I would understand recruiting from alien cultures, but SA? The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned
SA? You mean the country that produced Pro-Russian N@zi’s like Musk?
How is he a Nazi?explain
You need me to explain to you how the man who preforms Nazi salutes, complains that far right parties aren’t right enough, and spoke at an AFD rally is a Nazi? Yeah get fucked.
Breathtakingly ignorant comment…
Breathtakingly ignorant comment…a great number of SA individuals have served and died for the UK over the past 100 years or so, some with great distinction, members of my own family included. Do not equate Musk with an entire people.
History is past, currently South Africa is aligned with Putin and produces Musk.
Like it or not they do not get an automatic pass.
The people and the government are very very different. Especially the Akrikaans and English population versus the ANC
So you’re assuming that every saffer is a white good guy who is not supporting the ANC under any circumstance…. riiiiiiiiight.
Dern, having lived there myself, I think I can safely say that SA’s alignment with Putin is mainly thanks to the ANC, as there is still a lot of friendship between them that hearkens back to the days of the Cold War. The average Joe on the street doesn’t really give 2 hoots about Putin and most don’t even know the dynamics of it. And those that do, I can assure you, will most definitely not be lining up serve the UK in any way, shape or form. In that context, I don’t think it is correct to say that because the ANC have chosen to align with Putin, this has somehow produced Musk.
I don’t think SAs should get an automatic pass, all applicants should be vetted as is the responsible thing to do. But a great many who do apply are those who already have ancestral/familial links with the UK and I don’t think one should be so ready to generalise without understanding the political dynamics of SA and the actions of one man.
Norton: I am not generalising South Africans, nor am I saying they should be banned from serving entirely. I am pointing out that it is a country that is far from stable, far from universally pro-Britain or even pro-West, and that there needs to be a limit on how many of them are allowed into the Armed Forces. And if you think that nobody who wants to do a nation harm would sign on to work from the inside, or even if the idea of a cap was dropped that there couldn’t be concerted efforts through the ANC by, for example, Moscow to undermine the UK, you’re in for a rude shock.
So his logic goes; Russel Brand is from Essex, so all Essex Boys must be pervs…
Jamie Oliver and Olly Murs are from Essex so they must be sx offenders. Keanu Reeves’ mother is from Essex so I wonder if he is also. Well that’s if we follow his logic
Cool now what’s actually being said, as opposed to your shitty strawman:
“South African’s are great, we should have as many of them as possible.”
“No, South Africa produces enemies of the state like Musk and their current government which is pro-Putin, we should retain caps on the numbers of them and do thorough security checks before letting ones we know have no questionable sympathies in.”
I serve alongside alot of these soldiers and what I find absolutely disgusting is the fact that alot of them have been living separate from their partners and children for years, having to travel once a year or sometimes every couple of years depending on deployments to see them because they cannot bring them over until they earn a certain amount and can afford to pay for visas etc.
Leading to depression and marriage breaking down not to mention the children suffering from not having both parents around.
It seems it would be cheaper and faster to come via calais for a better life.
This is appalling treatment of soldiers regardless of the country they are from if you serve king and country you should be treated better.
One of the supposed consequences of the ‘end of empire’ is that we can’t draw on the manpower of a large portion of the globe. In reality though, we can (as evidenced by the sheer number of Commonwealth applicants), but deliberately choose not to do so. It seems the government perceives that a pretense of abject helplessness is in the national interest. I tend to disagree
The RN need to up the cap for no other purpose than rugby.
The number of people here who don’t get the idea that countries should cap the number of foreign soldiers in it’s forces should be limited is astounding. Not all commonwealth countries are friendly, not everyone in a commonwealth country can be counted to be loyal to the UK, and there are absolutely actors out there that would happily try to gain control over parts of the armed forces if they could.
Completely agree. I worry about the naivety of it.
We’ve seen how foreign governments can easily apply pressure to the families of their nationals resident in the UK and elsewhere (mainly thinking about the Chinese here). So even if we could guarantee that the loyalty of foreign personnel was as strong as UK born personnel, there is a massive vulnerability due to blackmail being easier for foreign governments to undertake on their families who are much more likely to live abroad.
A single infiltrator could wreak havoc if they had the chance. Whether that is intelligence leakage, or deliberate sabotage of high value assets such as lighting a fire on a ship, or damaging £100m fighter jets; even less obvious but potentially just as damaging discrete but regular removal of the odd bolt or other piece of equipment. Based on the potential risk, I’m not surprised the RAF and RN have lower limits, given that they have fewer but higher value assets.
Indeed, although the individual threat isn’t really something I think is managed by caps. That’s background screening and security checks. Caps is more about grey zone stuff, and ensuring the loyalty and integrity of the armed forces in the medium to long term.
I do but 8000 were rejected. Okay, but what happened to the rest?
Why do we seem to determined to ignore the people who want to help us, while focusing our resources on those who are only here for the money?
I believe it’s naive to think that all applicants are motivated by loyalty to the UK in the same way that domestic recruits are. Many will be influenced by the legal right to residency in the UK following service, the relatively high salary they may receive compared to opportunities in their home countries, and undoubtedly our enemies will try to exploit this route using agents (they’d be foolish not to).
That being said, the general consensus is obviously that the vast majority of those who do end up serving make a great contribution. But it only takes a small number, even just one, for this contribution to be outweighed by hostile acts.
Would be interesting to see how this rejection rate compares to UK applicant rejection rates. Anyone got those figures available?
I’m sure it also varies significantly between officer and enlisted recruitment.