Armed Forces: Sexual Offences

(asked on 22nd February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the new independent body proposed in the Armed Forces Bill will allow people and external organisations to review historical decisions made by the Military Police or Army Legal Services where the survivor thought the investigation into an alleged rape and/or sexual abuse case was unsatisfactory and unjust.


Answered by
Johnny Mercer Portrait
Johnny Mercer
Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This question was answered on 25th February 2021

The Armed Forces Bill will create a new regime for complaints against the Service Police. The proposal seeks to create a new statutory police complaints regime that mirrors the framework in place for independent oversight of the civilian police forces in England and Wales.

The Service Police Complaints Commissioner (SPCC) will oversee the new regime and will have an equivalent role to that carried out by the Director General of the Independent Office for Police Conduct in England and Wales. The Commissioner will carry out investigations into the most serious allegations against the Service Police and will also have overall responsibility for securing the maintenance of suitable arrangements for making complaints and dealing with other serious matters.

The new procedures will only relate to the Service Police forces. We are giving careful consideration to how the procedures will work in practice and how the new regime might apply to historic cases. These procedures will be detailed in a set of regulations that will undergo Parliamentary scrutiny before they are formalised.

The new regime will set out the role of the SPCC, as well as those already responsible for the three Service Police forces as well as the forces themselves. It will not give other people or organisations a role in the new complaints system.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) will be involved in super-complaints about the Service Police, as super-complaints about civilian forces in England and Wales are made to HMICFRS. Organisations who might be designated to make such a complaint will be detailed in the super-complaints regulations that will be made in due course.

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