Armed Forces: Women

(asked on 1st December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of his Department's progress towards its target for women to account for 30% of service personnel recruited by 2030.


Answered by
Andrew Murrison Portrait
Andrew Murrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 11th December 2023

The Armed Forces are committed to attracting, retaining and developing the best talent from the broadest diversity of skills and background, to reflect the society we serve. Women are an integral part of our Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence is taking action to ensure the Armed Forces support women to have full and thriving military careers - including reaching the very top ranks.

A Level of Ambition of 30% inflow of women by 2030 was announced in 2021, building on the content of the previously published Defence Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2018-2030. This is both "stretching and challenging" and a clear statement that Defence wants to improve, recognises the mission critical value women bring and is creating conversations and driving improvement activities.

Defence has adopted almost all the recommendations from the Defence Committee’s 2021 report into Women in the Armed Forces, having tested them with the Service Women’s Networks – and in many cases taking them further. A further progress update was provided to the Defence Committee on 14 November 2023. Notable recent progress includes:

  • In summer and autumn 2022, new Armed Forces policies were released on sexual exploitation and abuse, a ban on relationships between instructors and trainees, a zero-tolerance approach to sexual offending, and introducing additional levers to discharge those in the Armed Forces found guilty of unacceptable sexual behaviour.
  • Equipment and uniform improvements across the Services, including improved fit combat clothing and the provision of sports bras to all those who require breast support in initial training.
  • A range of health information products that support Servicewomen, including menopause and breastfeeding policies, a Servicewomen’s Health Handbook and a reviewed sanitary product provision and disposal system.

The requested information on the number and proportion of women recruited to the Armed Forces is published in the UK Armed Forces Biannual Diversity Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-index. Specifically, tables 7 and 23 of the supporting datasheets provide information on intake by gender to, respectively, UK Regulars and Future Reserves 2020.

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