Recruiters claim they are being marginalised in their efforts to place ex-military personnel because of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) settlement service’s policy of limiting agencies from its job fairs and advertising.

The unhappiness of these recruiters, who have long-standing links to ex-government worker talent pools, also stems from having to supply clients’ names to the MoD’s Career Transition Partnership (CTP) when seeking to fill jobs through the programme.

The CTP provides resettlement support for up to 17,000 service personnel who leave the forces each year. It is handled by HR consultancy RightCoutts in a recently-continued contract worth £80m over its 10-year duration. RightCoutts is owned by global recruiting company Manpower.

Recruitment agencies have traditionally been able to submit actual vacancies for consultants with the CTP to scrutinise, and if appropriate match them to suitable clients.

However, since the creation of its Rightjob.com website, CTP officials say, employment agencies’ interest in the market has grown significantly. Many agencies offer only a generic advertisement, which is likely to be no more than a CV-gathering mechanism. All approaches from agencies must now be ‘rigorously investigated’.

An ex-military recruiter acknowledges that some recruitment consultancies use generic adverts to find candidates for database building. “But on the other hand, the companies that build the databases are the ones that are active in finding roles for the guys by using whatever means they use,” he said.

“I would have thought it would be in their best interest to have the guys with as many companies as possible to increase the chances of the guys getting roles when they leave and more importantly getting the right role when they leave.”

Another recruiter said: “I think the CTP has probably had two or three bad experiences with recruiters’ CV gathering, but it is unfair to tar every agency with the same brush.”

The requirement to supply clients’ names raises several questions, one recruiter said. One is the confidentiality agreements that some clients specifically request. The other is: “What if the CTP contacted the client directly”, eliminating the recruiter altogether.

In a prepared statement, RightCoutts said: “There is a need for RightCoutts and the CTP to impose a limit to the number of vacancies that recruitment consultants place on the Rightjob.com website and to block attendance at jobs fairs in order to ensure that only the most valuable permanent positions are offered.

“Were there no limit, consultancies would be able to gain free advertising and administration of an infinite number of vacancies, regardless of whether they were in line with the quality demanded by the CTP policy for recruitment and employment agencies.”