UK Parliament / Open data

Women in the Armed Forces

Proceeding contribution from Leo Docherty (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 9 December 2021. It occurred during Backbench debate on Women in the Armed Forces.

That is a very good question. We need to be much more public about the outcomes of cases of this nature in order to give serving women confidence. The Secretary of State is very clear about increasing the number of women on courts martial. It is about the whole package that will give women confidence that their complaints will be heard independently and credibly.

My hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham asked about the independence of complaints of a sexual nature, and I can 100% confirm that that provision is now in place. If a serviceperson makes a complaint of a sexual nature, it will be handled entirely independently of the chain of command by the single service secretariat. My hon. Friend asked how we would measure outcomes. We will do that by being very public about our statistical performance and our outcomes. I also welcome the fact that our progress will be entirely accountable to Parliament. I look forward to her scrutiny throughout the delivery phase of all this work.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

705 c219WH 

Session

2021-22

Chamber / Committee

Westminster Hall
Back to top