We must deliver on our promises to service personnel
3 min read
The Defence Committee has been hard at work during its first six months, publishing four reports and scrutinising the Ministry of Defence (MoD) during a time when defence has rightly moved towards the top of the agenda for the public and Parliament.
A focus of our recent work has been our service personnel, whose selflessness and dedication help to keep us safe and secure.
Earlier this month we published a report on the Armed Forces Covenant. The covenant is a promise from the nation to its armed forces personnel, their families and veterans that they will not be disadvantaged because of their service. Yet our report found that it was inconsistently applied, meaning that personnel and their families face a lottery when accessing services.
The evidence we heard included testimony of personnel falling to the bottom of NHS waiting lists when they were required to move to a new place of duty, meaning they missed out on treatment. Others described difficulties obtaining school places for their children.
The question for us as a society is whether we’re taking our responsibility towards brave service personnel and their families as seriously as they’re taking their duty towards protecting us and our country. In cases like these, it’s clear that the government and society are not fulfilling their commitment to the armed forces community.
While the government’s pledge to bring the covenant “fully into law” is commendable, legislation alone is not enough. Awareness and understanding of the covenant need to be deeply embedded in all levels of society, and the legal duty to give due regard to military service should be extended to central and devolved governments.
Another priority for our committee has been addressing the experiences of women serving in the armed forces. This has been further underscored by the findings of the service inquiries into the tragic deaths of Gnr Jaysley Beck and OCdt Olivia Perks, the non-statutory inquiries into unacceptable behaviours in the Red Arrows and Submarine Service, and allegations from women of a hostile and toxic culture within the MoD.
We’re committed to continuing the work begun in the previous parliament on this issue, by holding regular hearings with the MoD to make sure it lives up to its commitments. Our recent evidence session with the minister, the three service chiefs and director achieved a result even before it took place – the government announced on the morning of the hearing that it is making fundamental changes to the services complaints system, finally taking cases of bullying, harassment and discrimination out of the single services’ chain of command. This is a welcome step, but as we highlighted, more still needs to be done to tackle unacceptable behaviours and a culture that can make service a hostile or unsafe environment for women.
Just this month, the union for MoD civil servants called for an inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment – a reminder that there is still much more progress to be made.
The committee also published a report on service accommodation, with positive results. The government accepted the majority of the recommendations made in our report. I’m pleased to see steps being taken in the right direction to address the dire condition of the defence estate.
Defence is a broad area and, over the last several months, the committee has explored issues including defence artificial intelligence, the Global Combat Air Programme (a joint initiative with Italy and Japan), grey-zone threats, and, most recently, we launched an inquiry into AUKUS (the partnership between Australia, the UK and the US).
However, I’m pleased we have been able to make service personnel such a focus. They are the beating heart of our armed forces, and throughout this Parliament, we plan on doing more work on the issues that matter most to them.
