Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how long, on average, it takes (1) the Army, (2) the Royal Navy, (3) the Royal Air Force, and (4) Strategic Command, to process a service complaint; and what estimate they have made of the cost of each complaint.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This information is available in the public domain. The average time required to process a Service Complaint is contained within the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces Annual Report statistics which are available at the following link: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-statisticals-tables.
The information you have requested on the average time required to process a Service Complaint is shown in Annex A, below.
No information is held about the cost of each complaint. This information is not routinely recorded and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Annex A
Average¹ time taken² to close a Service Complaint, by Service and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Service | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Royal Navy* | 20 | 37 | 22 | 23 | 23 |
Army | 18 | 34 | 30 | 24 | 24 |
RAF | 16 | 22 | 14 | 19 | 18 |
Tri-Service | 18 | 29 | 20 | 22 | 22 |
* includes Royal Marines | |||||
1 Median. | |||||
2 Time taken is measured in weeks. | |||||
| |||||
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many service complaints have been received by (1) the Army, (2) the Royal Navy, (3) the Royal Air Force, and (4) Strategic Command, in each of the last five years; and of those, how many have not been upheld.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Information regarding how many Service Complaints have been received, and how many have not been upheld, is publicly available and can be found in the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces Annual Report statistics available at the following link: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-statisticals-tables. Please note that the most recent year for which information is currently available is 2023.
The data you have requested is shown in Annex A, below, by Service. Please note that Complaints are recorded by Service and not Command and therefore no data is available for Strategic Command.
ANNEX A Number of Royal Navy Service Complaints*, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023 | |||||
Year | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination1 | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other1 | All complaint categories |
2019 | 69 | 24 | 32 | 37 | 162 |
2020 | 49 | 37 | 22 | 37 | 145 |
2021 | 56 | 36 | 21 | 36 | 149 |
2022 | 77 | 59 | 20 | 42 | 198 |
2023 | 95 | 55 | 43 | 90 | 283 |
% annual growth | 23% | -7% | 115% | 114% | 43% |
* including Royal Marine Service Complaints | |||||
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination" | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of Army Service Complaints, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023 | |||||
Year | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination1 | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other1 | All complaint categories |
2019 | 171 | 131 | 55 | 100 | 457 |
2020 | 179 | 130 | 46 | 76 | 431 |
2021 | 129 | 135 | 27 | 76 | 367 |
2022 | 191 | 128 | 39 | 124 | 482 |
2023 | 204 | 147 | 50 | 213 | 614 |
% annual growth | 7% | 15% | 28% | 72% | 27% |
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination" | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of RAF Service Complaints, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023 | |||||
Year | Career Management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination1 | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other1 | All complaint categories |
2019 | 44 | 39 | 27 | 37 | 147 |
2020 | 63 | 31 | 24 | 35 | 153 |
2021 | 73 | 61 | 36 | 63 | 233 |
2022 | 96 | 40 | 25 | 94 | 255 |
2023 | 129 | 60 | 53 | 86 | 328 |
% annual growth | 34% | 50% | 112% | -9% | 29% |
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination" | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of Royal Navy* closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Outcome | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Complaint fully/partially upheld | 27 | 25 | 13 | 28 | 93 |
Complaint not upheld | 36 | 19 | 9 | 27 | 91 |
Other outcome | 36 | 14 | 12 | 21 | 83 |
Total | 99 | 58 | 34 | 76 | 267 |
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant | 27% | 43% | 38% | 37% | 35% |
% not upheld | 36% | 33% | 26% | 36% | 34% |
% other outcome | 36% | 24% | 35% | 28% | 31% |
* includes Royal Marines | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of Army closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Outcome | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Complaint fully/partially upheld | 104 | 70 | 29 | 75 | 278 |
Complaint not upheld | 50 | 61 | 11 | 47 | 169 |
Other outcome | 79 | 42 | 14 | 46 | 181 |
Total | 233 | 173 | 54 | 168 | 628 |
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant | 45% | 40% | 54% | 45% | 44% |
% not upheld | 21% | 35% | 20% | 28% | 27% |
% other outcome | 34% | 24% | 26% | 27% | 29% |
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of RAF closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Outcome | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Complaint fully/partially upheld | 28 | 17 | 17 | 24 | 86 |
Complaint not upheld | 62 | 22 | 13 | 29 | 126 |
Other outcome | 20 | 19 | 13 | 23 | 75 |
Total | 110 | 58 | 43 | 76 | 287 |
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant | 25% | 29% | 40% | 32% | 30% |
% not upheld | 56% | 38% | 30% | 38% | 44% |
% other outcome | 18% | 33% | 30% | 30% | 26% |
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many extra posts have been recruited to process service complaints under Volunteer ex-Regular Reserve contracts or other reservist terms and condition of service by (1) the Army, (2) the Royal Navy, (3) the Royal Air Force, and (4) Strategic Command, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The following information details how many extra reservist posts have been recruited by the single Services in each year in order to process Service Complaints. The data has been provided by the three Services, who manage the Service Complaints process. Service Complaints are managed by the single Services, not by Commands, and thus Strategic Command is not included.
Royal Navy
Army
Royal Air Force
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many more service complaints they expect to receive following the enactment of the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill and its provision for families to submit such complaints; and what estimate they have made of the budget uplift required to deal with any such increase.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
While the Armed Forces Commissioner will absorb the functions of the existing Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces, the Bill does not make any substantive changes to the Service Complaints System. Families will not be able to access the Service Complaints system, which is specifically designed for serving personnel. The Bill focuses instead on the additional powers and functions the Commissioner will have to launch and report on investigations into general service welfare matters.
The Commissioner will be a direct point of contact for service families, providing a route for families to raise concerns on matters which could form the topic of a service welfare investigation. The financial implications of establishing and maintaining the office of the Armed Forces Commissioner, with their additional functions, are estimated to be within the range of £4.5 - £5.5m per year. This is only an initial estimate and represents a significant uplift on the annual running costs of the Service Complaints Ombudsman. The 2023 expenditure for the Service Complaints Ombudsman was in the region of £1.8m.
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many hours per day staff in (1) the Army, (2) the Royal Navy, (3) the Royal Air Force, and (4) Strategic Command, spend dealing with a service complaint on average; and what estimate they have made of the cost of such staff time in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This information is not routinely recorded and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 19 December (HL3498), what full or part time posts have been created within the armed forces to support the role of Service Complaints Ombudsman, broken down by service.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
While the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF) is a public appointment, entirely independent from the Ministry Of Defence (MOD) and has an office outside the MOD estate, the Department has a responsibility to ensure the Ombudsman is provided with sufficient funding.
Since the establishment of the SCOAF in January 2016, the MOD has worked closely with the current Ombudsman and her predecessors to regularly review and identify the required resources for them to carry out the functions associated with the role. Should additional resource be required, the MOD will work with the Ombudsman to determine how best to address the need.
The work of the Ombudsman is currently supported by two full time Civil Servants working within the Royal Navy, in addition to one Regular Officer (0.75 full time equivalent) and two full time Civil Servants within the Army. The Royal Air Forces does not have any formal positions established to directly support the SCOAF.
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 19 December (HL3498), what filtering mechanisms exist within the service complaints system to prevent vexatious complaints.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The following guidance is provided in Joint Service Publication 831 (Redress of Individual Grievances: Service Complaints) for complaint handlers should it be considered that a complaint may be vexatious:
All complaints are to be taken seriously and handled professionally and with consideration. If it is considered that a complaint may be vexatious, legal advice should be sought before making a decision on admissibility. Decision makers will need to consider if the complaint is substantially the same as a Service Complaint that has already been submitted and which has either been decided previously under the Service Complaints system or is currently being considered under the Service Complaints Process.
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what budget has been allocated by each of the Ministry of Defence’s six Top Level Budget (TLB) areas to the office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman since 2016, by (1) year and (2) TLB area.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The funding for the office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF) is provided wholly through the Ministry of Defence’s Head Office and Corporate Services Top Level Budget (TLB) and agreed annually. The Ombudsman has discretion over how those funds are used and publishes details of expenditure in their annual report to Parliament.
Since the creation of the role of the SCOAF in 2016, each of their annual reports to Parliament have included, as an appendix, a financial statement detailing expenditure incurred for that year. This information can be accessed on the Service Complaints Ombudsman’s website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/application-forms-factsheets-and-pamphlets/scoaf-annual-reports
Whilst the projected budget for Financial Year 2025-26 has not yet been confirmed, we would expect this to be broadly the same as the previous year. Further information on their budget and allocation can be found in the SCOAF Business Plan on the SCOAF’s website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-05/scoaf_business_plan_2024_25.pdf
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what budget will be allocated by the Ministry of Defence’s Single Service Top Level Budget (TLB) areas to the office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for 2025–26 by TLB area.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The funding for the office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF) is provided wholly through the Ministry of Defence’s Head Office and Corporate Services Top Level Budget (TLB) and agreed annually. The Ombudsman has discretion over how those funds are used and publishes details of expenditure in their annual report to Parliament.
Since the creation of the role of the SCOAF in 2016, each of their annual reports to Parliament have included, as an appendix, a financial statement detailing expenditure incurred for that year. This information can be accessed on the Service Complaints Ombudsman’s website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/application-forms-factsheets-and-pamphlets/scoaf-annual-reports
Whilst the projected budget for Financial Year 2025-26 has not yet been confirmed, we would expect this to be broadly the same as the previous year. Further information on their budget and allocation can be found in the SCOAF Business Plan on the SCOAF’s website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-05/scoaf_business_plan_2024_25.pdf
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the projected budget is for the office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces for 2025–26.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The funding for the office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF) is provided wholly through the Ministry of Defence’s Head Office and Corporate Services Top Level Budget (TLB) and agreed annually. The Ombudsman has discretion over how those funds are used and publishes details of expenditure in their annual report to Parliament.
Since the creation of the role of the SCOAF in 2016, each of their annual reports to Parliament have included, as an appendix, a financial statement detailing expenditure incurred for that year. This information can be accessed on the Service Complaints Ombudsman’s website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/application-forms-factsheets-and-pamphlets/scoaf-annual-reports
Whilst the projected budget for Financial Year 2025-26 has not yet been confirmed, we would expect this to be broadly the same as the previous year. Further information on their budget and allocation can be found in the SCOAF Business Plan on the SCOAF’s website: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-05/scoaf_business_plan_2024_25.pdf