People with asthma or severe acne will no longer be banned from joining Britain’s armed forces, Defence Secretary John Healey has announced.
Healey said he wanted to end what he sees as outdated and unnecessary entry requirements to tackle a recruitment crisis.
In a speech to Labour’s annual conference, he will also announce plans to get computer gamers to join a new cyber defence effort.
“If you are a top gamer – your country needs you,” Healey told the Sun.
Labour claims the British Army is at its smallest size in 200 years.
It says a 6% pay increase announced in July will boost recruitment – but it also wants to speed up the process and scrap “outdated” restrictions.
Anyone wanting to join the army has to pass a tough medical. People with heart problems, back problems, hearing or vision problems, among other things, will struggle to make the grade.
But a range of other conditions can also affect candidates’ chances of being accepted.
“Candidates with acne that may affect the ability to wear military clothing or to operate military equipment should normally be graded UNFIT, or entry should be deferred until the disease has been successfully treated,” says a Ministry of Defence briefing note from 2019.
In its latest medical rules, the army says: “Generally speaking, if you require treatment for asthma you will not be eligible. If you have had treatment in the past, then it will depend how long ago that was, how old you were at the time, what your symptoms were, and how much and how long you needed treatment for.”
The rules on asthma (and all medical conditions) are regularly updated and are often considered on a case by case basis during the appeals process. it adds.
Over the past five years, “medical reasons” have become the main reason for rejection in the British Army, with a total of 76,187 applicants disqualified on these grounds.
Healey is also keen to recruit gamers to the army’s ranks, telling the Sun that hours spent playing Call of Duty could prove useful to a new cyber defence initiative.
“We are short of drone pilots,” the defence secretary said.
“You can see the changing nature of warfare in Ukraine, where the combination of artillery and drones is responsible for the large majority of all the casualties.
“The sort of skills that drone pilots have are many of the same skills as some of our best console warriors are okay [at] in civilian life.”
According to the latest Ministry of Defence figures, there were 74,296 members of the regular Army – down from 79,330 in October 2019.
The previous government relaxed restrictions on beards and facial hair in an effort to boost recruitment.
But in a speech to the Labour conference on Monday, Healey will go further.
“Our Armed Forces rightly set the highest standards and with Labour that will continue,” he will say.
“At the same time, we will unblock the bottlenecks, the needless red tape and delays which are turning great talent away from our forces.”
