The Ministry of Defence has said that pressures on family life and opportunities outside the military remain the primary reasons personnel leave the armed forces, despite recent improvements in recruitment and retention.
In a written response to Parliament, defence minister Louise Sandher-Jones said there was “no single reason why personnel leave the Armed Forces”, but pointed to findings from the Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey. She said those who chose to exit service most commonly cited “the impact of Service life on family and personal life and opportunities outside the Armed Forces”.
The response followed questions about a decline in the full-time trained strength of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, RAF and Army over the year to 1 October 2025. While overall force levels have stabilised, the department acknowledged that retention challenges persist across all services. Sandher-Jones said the government was “pleased to be reversing the trend of decline”, but added that “we know there is more to do” to address the underlying causes of personnel losses.
She highlighted a package of measures intended to improve both recruitment and retention, including speeding up the process for former personnel who wish to rejoin, delivering what she described as “the largest pay rise in decades” for service members, and removing “100 outdated recruitment policies”.
The minister also pointed to plans to legislate for the UK’s first Armed Forces Commissioner, aimed at improving service life and providing greater independent oversight of conditions faced by personnel.
Is this one of those questionaires where just the two options are given ?
Are you leaving because-
A – Family Life.
B – Civilian Job.
🤔
I or people just saying that instead of poor leadership.
I wonder how many meetings they’ve had and how much has been spent on “research” to come up with this amazing answer.
Morale.
‘At the end of the Cold War in 1991 the Army had 155,000 troops in four divisions, with nine armoured and four infantry brigades. In 2025 it had 75,000 troops in two divisions, with two armoured and three infantry brigades. Combat power had shrunk by more than half. And the Army was less ready for war. Ill-prepared not just for a high-intensity war with Russia, but even for a more limited role as part of a potential Ukraine Reassurance Force.’
‘Inadequate leadership by prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and their rotating cast of defence ministers, led to avoidable casualties and strategic defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, increasing the human, financial and reputational costs of both wars. This resulted in declining political, public and media support for putting British troops in harm’s way.’
‘A lethal combination of Treasury hostility to defence spending and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) favouring investment in ships and aircraft continually squeezed the Army’s resources. To live within its budget the Army was forced to cut away the people, weapons, logistics and training that were so essential to military effectiveness.’
‘The decline and fall of the British Army’ Ben Barry 19 Dec 2025
If called upon to deploy to a hot war on Continental Europe against a battle hardened adversary possessing a massed drone arsenal, the British Army will be annihilated in short order.