Armed Forces: Conditions of Employment

(asked on 17th January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which activities undertaken by under-18s in the armed forces constitutes hazardous work as defined under Article 3 (d) of ILO Convention 182 and its accompanying Recommendation 190.


Answered by
Tobias Ellwood Portrait
Tobias Ellwood
This question was answered on 24th January 2019

The Ministry of Defence's Management of Health and Safety Regulations requires special attention to identifying and controlling health and safety risks to young persons in the workplace. Many of these are covered by existing risk assessment and control measures, but the employing branch will identify any additional control measures/changes required in accordance with the normal risk assessment process.

All Armed Forces personnel are trained for a wide range of operational tasks and environments, including combat. Established procedures are in place to ensure that Service personnel under the age of 18 are not deployed on operations. Our policies on under 18s in Service are robust and comply with national and international law.

Commanding Officers take their responsibilities towards their personnel extremely seriously. Commanding Officers pay close attention to the needs of under 18s as they pass from recruitment through Phase 1 and Phase 2 training, to operational units.

Reticulating Splines