Capita to face questioning by Defence Committee
The Defence Committee holds a one-off evidence session with representatives from Capita, including the CEO of Capita Public Service; COO of Capita’s Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP) and Head of Public Affairs and Government Relations. The session focuses on the RPP, a contract that Capita has held since 2012 to work with the Army to ‘…attract, source and select officers and soldiers for the British Army (Regular & Reserve) and guide them on their journey into basic training.’
Meeting details
On average, since the RPP was re-set in 2018, the Army has failed to recruit 35 Regular officers and over 1,100 Regular soldiers into the basic training system each year. This represents a failure to recruit the equivalent of nearly two infantry battalions per year (around 600 personnel each)
The session is likely to cover Capita’s delivery record compared to the Army’s recruitment targets and whether this has this changed since the contract’s ‘reset’ in 2018. The Committee are likely to ask whether recent cyber incidents in 2022 and 2023 have impacted Army recruitment and whether measures have been put in place to protect against further attacks.