One would think that one would get into a routine of “Off with the mask, slug of the water, stand at the Dispatch Box”, but it still comes as a ritual.
Amendments 53 to 55 and 66B in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and promoted so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, cover four strands: promoting flexible service, making binding the recommendations of the Service Complaints Ombudsman, monitoring the experience of veterans with protected characteristics, and considering whether to establish an independent defence authority. These are important amendments, and I reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, that the Government understand that Members are trying to make constructive contributions.
The amendments concern a broad range of topics but, as has been identified, each is based on recommendations of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee report, Protecting Those Who
Protect Us: Women in the Armed Forces from Recruitment to Civilian Life. The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, was interested in what happened at the convened meeting of the Army Board this morning. I think he will understand that I am constrained in what I can say, because these proceedings are confidential. I hope he realises that the Secretary of State, his Ministers and the Army do want to be sure that they are proactive in addressing issues which, as noble Lords have indicated, can be upsetting when they surface in the media and can cause concern. Without being able to impart any specific details, I reassure your Lordships that this morning’s meeting was very constructive, with what I thought were some excellent suggestions coming forward.
I believe that the motive behind the amendments is driven by a subject which I am deeply passionate about and wholeheartedly supportive of: women in the Armed Forces and, indeed, women in defence. To that end, I want to say a few words about that Select Committee inquiry and to thank the committee for its thorough work and report. That work has been enhanced by the testimony of current and former servicewomen, whose experiences have greatly assisted the inquiry. Their courage and fortitude were not just admirable but inspiring, and I extend my thanks to all those women who came forward to such positive effect. I acknowledge that, on too many occasions in the past, Defence has failed to provide women with adequate support. It will not surprise your Lordships to hear me say that.
We have examined the Defence Committee’s report in minute detail. We want to use it to build on our improvements and to ensure that our response is substantial and informed. We recognise that the lived experience for many women is not yet good enough, and this has to change.
The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, rightly identified the report as pivotal. I assure the Committee that the Secretary of State is absolutely committed to delivering against its findings. Indeed, he intends to go further. The Secretary of State has personally discussed the initial draft of our response to the report with members of the servicewomen’s networks, and this has led to additional work.
I know that your Lordships are keen to see a response to the Defence Committee’s report and I acknowledge that it is taking a little longer than expected, but that is for good reason. The Secretary of State has kept the inquiry chairwoman, Sarah Atherton, fully informed. She is in the picture. I think that we all agree that we would much rather produce something meaningful and substantial that provides hope and concrete direction for the way forward than just cobble together something to produce it within a time limit.
Defence Ministers and service chiefs are adamant that the important issues in the report are addressed comprehensively and that no opportunity is missed to bring about meaningful and enduring change. We are all taking an active role in ensuring that our response to the report is comprehensive and well informed to deliver positive outcomes. We are in the process of finalising that and anticipate submitting our response “in due course”, as it says here. I say to your Lordships to read that as “sooner rather later”.
I wish to be clear that many changes have already been introduced to improve the experience for women in the Armed Forces and military service remains a fantastic career opportunity for men and women alike. It is important to remind your Lordships that nearly 90% of the women giving evidence to the committee would recommend a career in the Armed Forces to female relatives and friends. We should not underestimate the importance of that. Yes, there are matters to be addressed. Yes, there are improvements to be made. Yes, there were areas overdue for investigation, for being addressed and for being rectified. But that sort of testament shows that many women have confidence in a career in the Armed Forces. We are delighted about that and proud of it. We owe it to them and everyone else in the Armed Forces to make sure that the response to this report has clout and impact.
Before speaking to Amendment 53, I first remind this Committee that the Armed Forces launched flexible service on 1 April 2019. The policy allows all regular personnel to apply to serve part-time and/or to restrict the amount of time that they are away from the home base, for a temporary period, subject to defence need. Flexible service is part of a suite of flexible working opportunities that we offer our people, which include remote working, variable start and finish times and compressed working. Between its introduction in April 2019 and September 2021, more than 355 service personnel and their families have benefited from flexible service. This level of uptake is in line both with the MoD’s forecast and with the experience of other nations’ Armed Forces that have introduced similar measures. Defence is ensuring that as many service personnel as possible can benefit from these measures by keeping flexible service under constant review.
We have an ongoing communications campaign aimed at encouraging uptake and improving awareness of flexible service and the wider flexible working opportunities that it offers its people. For example, this autumn, Defence is releasing a series of podcasts that explore service personnel’s experience of flexible working. On completion, the campaign’s impacts will be evaluated to inform communications for 2022.
Our previous communications have led to a high awareness of flexible service. The Armed Forces continuous attitude survey for 2021 shows that 82% of service personnel have heard of the policy. Notable campaigns have included video case studies of service personnel on flexible service in summer 2020, which attracted over 270,000 impressions on social media and nearly 10,000 engagements, and promoting Defence’s full flexible working offer to the Armed Forces through a digital booklet Flexible Working and You: A Guide for Service Personnel, which was published in January 2021. The booklet was viewed 17,000 times on the GOV.UK website and 12,850 copies were distributed to Armed Forces information centres and military units during June and July this year.
Ownership and development of flexible service policy is overseen by the Minister for Defence People and Veterans and, as such, he, too, is committed to ensuring that all service personnel can benefit from the policy. Defence already has several initiatives in place to measure and report on its awareness and uptake. These include annual reporting of flexible
service’s developments, uptake and usage in the Armed Forces continuous attitude survey’s background quality reports.
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As I have outlined, Ministers are already firmly committed to improving the uptake and usage of flexible service for all service personnel. Quite simply, it works for our people and it works for us. Defence is already reporting on its progress regularly and continually assessing its people’s attitudes towards the policy. Overall, we have a positive story to tell about flexible service and all these measures will help us to ensure that flexible working policies are the best that they can be for our people who continue to serve our country with such bravery and distinction. I hope that, following that fairly lengthy explanation and these reassurances, the noble Lord will agree to withdraw his amendment.
On Amendment 54, the MoD values the strong independent oversight that the ombudsman brings to the service complaints process. I think that it was the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, who asked about the complaints system and, specifically, what was happening to try to improve it. There are constant ongoing pieces of work. A transformation programme is being delivered and, of course, this Bill introduces various improvements to aspects of the complaints system.
Once the ombudsman has completed her investigation into a particular service complaint, she must prepare a report setting out her findings and any recommendations. This report is sent to the Defence Council and the complainant, among others. The ombudsman’s findings from an investigation are already binding on the Defence Council; this was the clear intention when the office was created in 2015. The courts have had no problem finding in other contexts that the intention of Parliament was that such findings by an ombudsman are binding on the recipient. Therefore, it is unnecessary to specify the legal effect of findings in the legislation. As a matter of law, the ombudsman’s recommendations on a service complaint are not binding. On receipt of any recommendation, primary legislation obliges the Defence Council to consider that recommendation and then decide what action to take. The legislation makes it clear that the Defence Council may reject a recommendation, giving reasons in writing.
The position for the Service Complaints Ombudsman corresponds to the position for other public sector ombudsmen. No specific provision is made in other ombudsman legislation, where it is standard practice that they make non-binding recommendations. It is important to note that, while recommendations are not binding, they have legal consequences. The Defence Council is not able to reject recommendations simply because it does not agree with them. It has to give written reasons for a refusal to accept a recommendation—and, of course, a failure to follow a recommendation can be judicially reviewed. The process is also transparent. Should a recommendation not be implemented, the Defence Council ensures that it provides the reasons for not implementing that recommendation in order to be transparent about the reasons for not doing so. I hope that, with that explanation, the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, will be minded not to press his amendment.
Amendment 55 would monitor the experience of personnel with protected characteristics serving in the Armed Forces. I understand and share the intention of the noble Lord’s amendment but I do not share his desire for a requirement in law—and I shall explain why. Understanding the experiences of all Armed Forces veterans and making sure that we provide world-class services to our veteran community is a vital priority for the Government. We recognise and highly value the contributions that veterans have made to our Armed Forces and want to ensure that the support in place is tailored to their needs. There is still work to be done to understand our veteran community and to improve the data that we collect. Indeed, the Government plan to undertake an ambitious programme of work in this area over the coming months and years.
I will build this out with an illustration and focus on a specific example. The census that took place in 2021 in England and Wales included, for the first time, a question asking respondents whether they had previously served in the UK Armed Forces. The first breakdown of this data will be available in 2022, before the publication of the covenant annual report, with further analyses available in following years. This new dataset will transform our understanding of the veteran population and enable us to look at how key policy issues impact veterans with protected characteristics, from their health and well-being to housing and employment situations. Through utilising the census data and linking it to other datasets, we will be able to answer a range of questions that we cannot answer currently on the experiences of veterans with protected characteristics. This information will be fed into policy-making across government.
Additionally, the Government will develop a suite of metrics to track our success against achieving the goals we set out in the 2018 Strategy for our Veterans. These metrics will improve our understanding of progress across the key themes of the Strategy for our Veterans, from health and well-being to employment opportunities. This will provide a crucial additional opportunity to further understand the experiences of veterans with protected characteristics and some of the potential gaps in provision.
The work is ongoing, and the Government are committed to taking it forward. We do not see the need for a statutory requirement when the Government agree with, and indeed are committed to going beyond, what this amendment requires. I hope I have assured your Lordships of both the Government’s commitment to this matter and the action currently in course. I urge the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, not to press his amendment.
The final amendment in this group, Amendment 66B, proposes a new clause and seeks to oblige the Secretary of State to review whether an independent defence authority is required. The vision of a central defence authority, as foreseen in the Wigston review, is currently being delivered through the new Diversity and Inclusion Directorate, which was stood up earlier this year. This directorate, which is independent of the chain of command, was established on 1 April 2021, bringing together for the first time diversity and inclusion, service complaints and justice policy, as well as the Wigston implementation teams. The noble Lord,
Lord Coaker, referred to Wigston, and I would like to reassure him that 11 of the 12 sub-recommendations made in the Wigston review have now been achieved.
The Diversity and Inclusion Directorate carries out a number of important functions, including ownership of the policy for behaviours, informal complaints and service complaints, as well as holding the services to account through the department’s performance and risk-monitoring process. The directorate has also developed consistency with pan-defence climate assessment, which is a tool for local leaders to understand their culture, including the use of core questions and mandated mediation. It has established a 24-hour bullying, harassment and discrimination helpline for individuals to raise concerns. It also continues to develop programmes to support victims and has introduced a new harassment investigation service, which is outsourced and independent of Defence. Furthermore, Danuta Gray concluded in her one-year-on Wigston progress review that a new diversity and inclusion directorate would in effect fulfil the functions of a central defence authority.
I apologise for describing the current situation at some length, but I hope it is helpful to your Lordships to understand some of the detail of what is happening. In that context, I hope the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, is reassured by what I have had to say, and I invite him not to press his amendment.
Finally, I wish to reassure the Committee that our commitment to making a difference for all women in the Armed Forces is real, and when the response to the Defence Select Committee’s report comes out, I think your Lordships will agree. It will be a really chunky and impressive piece of work.