Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Rejected
Resolving F-35 engineering personnel shortages will take three to four years
Conclusion
The Department acknowledged that the shortages across all these roles were very important, with the Chief of the Defence Staff stating that personnel had been one of his top two priorities in his previous role as Chief of the Air Staff. The Department told us that the training time required for engineers meant that it would take three or four years before the programme had the required numbers.35 This includes recruiting the 168 additional engineers—a 20% increase—required to address the shortage caused by miscalculating the number of engineers required per aircraft. The Department noted that the shortage of engineers is a problem that affects the whole of the armed forces.36
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the recommendation to produce a plan specifically focused on the F-35 workforce, and will address the issue through the ongoing RAF People Campaign.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
3.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 3.2 The government agrees with the requirement to address the known recruitment and retention challenges through a holistic approach but disagrees with the recommendation to produce a plan specifically focused on the F-35 workforce. Instead, the department will address this recommendation through the ongoing RAF People Campaign that sets out challenging targets for the RAF to achieve workforce balance. 3.3 The Armed Forces continue to expect challenges recruiting for key skills where there is strong competition in the labour market including cyber, digital, healthcare & medical and engineering. Retention remains a key priority and an evidence-based approach, drawing on survey data, feedback, and wider engagement to understand the issues affecting personnel continues to be taken. A range of targeted measures have already been introduced to address immediate pressures, particularly for some specialist areas where there are workforce capability gaps. These include financial retention incentives, increased opportunities for Extensions of Service, broadened eligibility for Standard Learning Credits, and an uplift to disturbance expenses for personnel returning to the UK or moving between overseas locations. 3.4 RAF Recruitment & Selection have driven through no less than 130 adjustments to recruitment policy already, introducing education reform, fitness reform and most recently health reform to the recruitment approach, these initiatives have ensured that the RAF has seen more individuals enter Formal Training than at any time over the last 15 years.