Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many legacy complaints were handled by the Service Complaints Commissioner in each year from 2010 to 2014; how many of those complaints are outstanding; and if he will make a statement.

The Service Complaints Commissioner (SCC) cannot investigate complaints. However, she has discretion to refer any allegation to the individual's commanding officer or, if the commanding officer is implicated, to a senior officer.

The Ministry of Defence has interpreted ‘legacy complaints’ to mean allegations referred by the SCC to the chain of command in each requested year, together with the numbers of these complaints which remained open as at 31 March 2015. This information is given in the table.