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“I don’t think it’s a quick fix to recruitment challenges. They’re more about medical conditions, timeliness and flexibility,” he said.
In response to the news, Grant Shapps drew a direct comparison between facial hair and recruitment. He tweeted: “With recruitment being a priority and YouGov recently finding that the majority of men (54%) now say they currently wear a beard or mustache, I am asking the Army to formally review the outdated beard ban. Today, the rules have made this smart change.”
Wallace’s comments were echoed by former army chief Lord Dannatt, who said the issue of beards had “nothing to do” with improving recruitment.
Official government figures released by Labor show nearly three-quarters of potential soldiers have dropped out of the army application process because it takes too long to enlist.
The data found that while just over 1 million people have applied to join the RAF, Navy or Army since 2014, three quarters have abandoned the process, resulting in the Ministry of Defense registering just over 132,000 people and rejecting nearly 100,000 people. 170,000 people.
Outsourcing giant Capita recently put forward proposals to parliament to improve army recruitment, including allowing soldiers with a history of asthma, hay fever and visible tattoos to be employed.
chronic lung disease
Currently, candidates with a history of asthma in their medical records must demonstrate that they have been clear of the chronic lung disease for at least two years.
Lord Dannatt told the Daily Telegraph: “Growing a beard or not has nothing to do with improving the recruitment crisis.
“A big problem with recruiting is shortening the delay in applications for personnel to begin training. The military needs to get back to recruiting offices down the street manned by Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines. At that time, applicants were processed quickly and at a Measured in weeks rather than months or even years.”
He added: “The old system used to work and we didn’t have recruitment problems. The key was reducing the delay between applying and being rejected or accepted. We lost too many good applicants because it took too long.”
Mr Shapps has been an outspoken critic of poor army recruitment numbers and called the decision to ban beards “ridiculous”. He said more needs to be done to remove barriers that prevent people from signing up, and suggested that in an “Amazon world,” the process needs to be accelerated.
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