ARMED FORCES RECRUITING PROGRAMME

Military Capability

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £201m
Published schedule: 15/03/2018 – 30/04/2028
NISTA delivery confidence: Not disclosed
Senior responsible owner: Andrew Cree

What the project is for

The Armed Forces Recruiting Programme is the Tri-Service programme responsible for delivering a single, common Tri-Service Recruiting Operating Model for the Armed Forces. The Programme seeks to bring the three single Service recruiting activities together under one future recruiting service with a commercial partner and a single digital platform.

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 remained at Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors. 1.The level of risk being carried with respect to the novel collaborative delivery of technical solution and data migration. 2. Delivery of some aspects of the service not progressing as initially planned, requiring joint risk mitigation and re-planning to be pursued. 3. Continued challenges in aggregating information to allow for improved tracking of progress against the delivery of this complex programme.

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained the same at 30/04/2028. This is primarily due to the following factors. 1. Timely approval of the Full Business Case and contract let with Team Serco that includes a phased transition from the contract becoming effective in April 2025 and allowing to progress to Full Solution Implementation in October 2027.

Cost

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26-Q4 has marginally increased from £194.96M to £195.05M. This is primarily due to the following factors. 1. The WLC figures include the Feasibility, Assessment and Transition phases. The funding for the Assessment phase reflected an earlier approval of funding plus civilian workforce costs which are not included in the original Approved Budgetary Level. 2. The AFRP Full Business Case was approved 31 January 2025 providing endorsement of a revised baseline of £2,258M for a 2-year transition period, 7 year core delivery contract and 3 x potential option years. £135.1M of this approval relates to the programme transition years, which have been included in the reported figures.

Benefits

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Benefits at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) remained at 0. There are no monetised benefits.