Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many cases of domestic abuse within armed forces families were reported in each year since 2000; and how many of those cases resulted in criminal proceedings.

Domestic abuse is a very important issue and we treat allegations of domestic abuse very seriously. In July 2018, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) launched its first strategy to tackle domestic abuse within the Armed Forces and defence civilian communities. The strategy builds on existing work by the Armed Forces in this area, such as providing specialist training to welfare staff, and included the launch of a campaign to raise awareness of the issue. The MOD is a member of the cross-Government Violence against Women and Girls working group.

In the UK, the Service Justice System does not normally have jurisdiction for investigating, or prosecuting cases of domestic abuse, as that is normally the responsibility of the domestic Criminal Justice System, and as such the data held by the MOD is limited. Additionally, the MOD does not hold centralised records of reported cases of domestic abuse which did not result in a prosecution or which may involve minor violence in a domestic setting which were dealt with at a Summary Hearing.

The following table provides details of the number of Service personnel prosecuted for domestic abuse by the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) at a Court Martial:

Notes:

Information before 2005 is not held.

2005 to 2008 – these years were prior to the creation of the SPA and the data held on the SPA’s case database was derived from the unique case management systems of the Army, Navy and RAF Prosecuting Authorities. These systems held varying levels of data and detail on the individual cases. Therefore, these figures should be regarded as estimated.

2007 – one case has yet to go to Court Martial – accused Absent Without Official Leave.

2009 – This was the year that the SPA came into being and was also the year that a new cases management system entitled “AXXIA DNA” was trialled in SPA. This new system wasn’t compatible with the UK “AXXIA” system and data has been lost as a result. Figures should, therefore, be regarded as an estimate.

2018 – one case has yet to go to Court Martial.

2019 – five cases have yet to go to Court Martial.