Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff at the Army Foundation College were found to have started (a) intimate and (b) otherwise inappropriate relationships with recruits in each year since 2014.

Sexual relationships between instructors and trainees have no place in Defence, or wider society, and the MOD’s zero tolerance approach ensures our commitment to providing a better working environment for our Serving personnel is met.

Fewer than ten staff at Army Foundation College Harrogate were found to have had inappropriate relationships with recruits since 2014. Due to the very small number, this will not be broken down further.

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest ten. Rounding is used to preserve anonymity.
2. JPA is a live system which is updated for retrospective complaints/allegations and therefore data can be subject to change.
3. These figures are single Service estimates only and are not official statistics produced by Defence Statistics.
4. There is no defined criteria for ‘intimate relationships’ or for ‘otherwise inappropriate relationships’. The figure above is based on a search for cases where there was found to have been an abuse of a position of trust at AFC Harrogate which had a sexual nature to it.