Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what data his Department collects on the number of Armed Forces personnel with adverse childhood experiences.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not have a definition for what constitutes "adverse childhood experiences". Such a term could refer to circumstances ranging from socioeconomic factors, such as a deprived background, through to serious criminal matters, such as being a victim of child abuse. Although there is no centralised definition, and therefore no central data collection in this area, the MOD would hold some data on certain matters which may be considered adverse childhood experiences. For example, socioeconomic background may be recorded in voluntary diversity declarations, while incidents of childhood abuse may be recorded in confidential medical records or as part of a mental health assessment during recruitment medicals. In-line with our data protection obligations, the MOD requests only the minimum of personal data required for our purposes, both during and after recruitment, which does not routinely include information about any adverse childhood experiences.