Even the England rugby team would struggle to pass strict medical tests for the British Army, which are contributing to a military staffing crisis, a recruitment chief said.
Richard Holroyd of the outsourcing company Capita, which has a contract to help the army attract regular and reserve soldiers and officers, said it was taking 150 days for would-be recruits to join the army, partly because of the medical assessments they had to undergo.
He told a defence select committee inquiry into recruitment that youngsters were being “attracted elsewhere” as they waited to hear if they had been accepted. MPs warned that all three services were “haemorrhaging” more troops than they could recruit.
Young people with tattoos above the collar line or on their hands, sufferers
