The Ministry of Defence is looking into 99 ‘live’ allegations of bullying, harassment, discrimination and victimisation, a minister has revealed.
Defence minister Andrew Murrison revealed the statistics in a letter to Maria Eagle, Labour’s shadow defence procurement minister, published in the House of Commons library. He included a table that showed 81 of the bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation allegations were made in 2023, while 11 came from the first month of 2024 alone. A further six were from 2022, and one was from 2021.
The number and size of compensation payouts for bullying and harassment has doubled over the past four years, according to officials.
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Eagle told the press that the letter contained “more evidence of utterly unacceptable behaviour in the MoD and ministers’ failure to get to grips with deep challenges in defence. The defence secretary must take the lead and root this out.”
In 2023, 60 female civil servants wrote to the MoD permanent secretary Andrew Murrison detailing incidents of sexual assault, harassment and abuse. Data released in January in response to a question by Eagle showed that allegations have soared in the past five years.
This prompted the Prospect union to conduct a survey, which showed that 60% of the 200 female defence workers who responded had experienced harassment. Three-quarters (73%) felt behaviours that would be considered “toxic and inappropriate in public life” were tolerated in the defence sector.
Rape and sexual assault in the workplace, along with unsolicited photographs of genitalia, were among the allegations recorded.
The findings led Prospect to urge a “wholesale culture change” at the MoD. It also requested that the Equality and Human Rights Commission be asked to investigate.
An MoD spokesperson said: “We do not tolerate abuse, bullying or discrimination of any kind and all allegations are thoroughly investigated.
“We encourage anyone who believes they have experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour to report it and while some cases can be complicated and take time, swift action is taken where possible.”
The department’s 24-hour anti-bullying helpline is said to have received more than 700 calls since it was set up.
The spokesperson added: “A range of measures have been introduced to improve the experience for everyone across the department, including improvements to reporting mechanisms, increased access to support and a 24/7 anti-bullying helpline.”
Eagle said a Labour government would appoint an armed forces commissioner “to act as a strong independent voice to improve the lives of serving personnel and their families”.
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