Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the Wigston Review.

The Secretary of State for Defence commissioned a review to assess progress implementing the Wigston recommendations which was published in December 2020. Led by Danuta Gray (Non-Executive Board Member), it concluded that good progress had been made. The Unacceptable Behaviours Progress Review can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unacceptable-behaviours-progress-review

In particular, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has established a whole-force bullying, harassment, and discrimination helpline, introduced 'active bystander' training to give people the tools to intervene when they witness or hear of unacceptable behaviour, updated policy guidance, and widened the remit of our Diversity and Inclusion Advisers to clearly cover civilians.

We have also agreed reforms to the Service Complaints System and conducted research into the over-representation of women and black and ethnic minority personnel within it.

We remain committed to implementing the Wigston and Gray review recommendations. The MOD is currently working to roll-out climate assessments across Defence, conduct sexual harassment surveys in each of the single Services, and introduce an improved investigations service for bullying, harassment, and discrimination complaints.