To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of malfunctions on the British Army website on overall recruitment to the armed forces.

The Department, Army and Capita are working collaboratively and at pace to bring the Defence Recruitment System (DRS) back online, balancing cyber risks against the risk to Army capabilities of a reduction in inflow. Inflow into the Army remains a high priority.

This incident will, however, have a limited effect on recruitment this year. During the incident, DRS was disconnected from the both the intranet and internet. In today's recruiting environment, candidates favour an online application process, over the telephone-based or paper-based Business Continuity Plan in use to mitigate the loss of service.

The Army has been in contact with candidates in the recruitment pipeline, to keep them aware and engaged on next steps on their applications. This will continue as the functionality of DRS is restored to Full Operating Capability.