Liberal Democrat MP Helen Maguire has pressed the Ministry of Defence for Reserve recruitment data by constituency.
In reply, Defence minister Louise Sandher-Jones said such information is not held centrally and that the Services “do not set recruitment targets by constituency.”
She instead released application numbers to the Volunteer Reserves between 2020 and 2025, showing a sharp fall in 2023 followed by a strong rebound. “I am grateful for the contribution of our Reserve Forces who provide the UK with the ability to meet the threats we face at home and overseas, with the scale, skills, agility and connection to society that it needs, in a cost-effective way,” the minister said.
Applications to the Volunteer Reserves (12 months ending 31 March)
| Service | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naval | 2,832 | 2,393 | 2,315 | 2,715 | 3,024 |
| Army | 29,273 | 23,409 | 18,271 | 24,665 | 31,454 |
| RAF | 4,908 | N/A | 3,978 | 4,257 | 5,297 |
Source: Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics, 1 July 2025
The figures underline the scale of demand for the Army Reserves in particular, with more than 31,000 applications in 2025. Naval applications also rose to just over 3,000, while the RAF Reserves reached their highest level in the series.
The data does not provide constituency-level breakdowns as Maguire requested, but it suggests renewed interest in Reserve service across all three Services.
Applications are one thing.
What is the acceptance rate?
What is the trajectory on strength?
What is the churn?
What is the attendance rate?
Those should be public.
What won’t be public is the mix of recruits and how useful they are to the military.
Given the increased importance and skills in engineering roles you would hope they were well represented.
Would be very useful to know average time from application to start of phase 1 training too.
True
Hopefully someone now has a preformed PMQ!
Hopefully someone now picks up the batton and asks it.
Certainly far more useful questions than asking for the number of applications for a constituency… 🤦🏻♂️