Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Wigston Review into inappropriate behaviours in the Armed Forces, published on 15 July 2019, how the Ministry of Defence implemented the necessary training interventions to tackle the issue of overrepresentation of minority groups in the complaints process.

The independent study into the overrepresentation of minority groups in the Service Complaints system has yet to conclude, therefore we are unable to commission targeted training at this current stage. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is conducting a comprehensive review of all relevant training to ensure Diversity and Inclusion principles are included and up to date, reflecting the Wigston Review findings.

The MOD ensures all Service personnel and civil servants receive regular and mandatory Diversity and Inclusion training, and each Service has their own initiatives aimed at their personnel. Collectively, the Department has recently designed a three strand approach to Active Bystander training: new entrants to Defence and those on career progression courses will receive Active Bystander principles in their training; Delivering Active Bystander training on establishments at regular intervals; and creating an accessible online training Active Bystander product.