Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the Britannia Royal Naval College is subject to inspections by the Office for Standards in Education.

Ofsted is commissioned by Defence to provide Ministers with independent external oversight of initial training across Defence. They examine training establishment's provision of Care & Welfare including self-assessment processes using the MOD specific Inspection Framework (MODIF).

This commission and its terms are set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreed between the MOD and Ofsted. Within this MoU Ofsted inspections across all 3 services cover: Phase 1 and Phase 2 Regular training establishments for Officers and other ranks, University Service Units and Phase 1 and Phase 2 Reserve Training.

Ofsted will seek to determine the progress made in addressing issues of duty of care, welfare and support for recruits and trainees within Initial Training.

Findings and recommendations are provided to the unit, with general MOD recommendations made in the published Annual Report to Ministers.