Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many African countries the Government has agreements with affording British military personnel diplomatic status while on training; how many complaints against British soldiers by local authorities in Africa her Department has been made aware of in the last five years; and how many of those complaints involved violence against women.

Diplomatic status is not afforded to British military personnel while on training, these personnel are subject to separate bilateral Status of Forces Agreements between the UK and the host nation, as well as subject to the Armed Forces Act 2006.

We do not hold information regarding complaints made by local authorities centrally, but when serious complaints are made, they are directed to the appropriate authority.

Complaints involving violence against women should be directed to the police authority with jurisdiction, as set out in the UK’s defence agreements with individual countries. Statistics on investigations and prosecutions for sexual offences that are dealt with through the Service Justice System are compiled by the Ministry of Defence annually. This database does not cover civilian systems in the UK or abroad.

We are currently reviewing our databases to examine improvements such as the recording of geographic locations.

In addition, I have directed the creation of a new central database for collating information about non-criminal complaints by host nations local authorities or individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa starting on 1 January 2022.