Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to encourage more women to join the defence workforce.

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 will be 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.

In terms of the civilian workforce, a range of creative materials have been developed to advertise all the opportunities within the Defence Civil Service workforce. Products include real life experiences of our employees, , who work in roles across the Defence Estate, to showcase the diversity and inclusive nature of Defence. Recently, these products have been used to advertise National Inclusion Week specially for the Engineering Profession.

The majority of Civil Service roles are advertised offering flexible working opportunities, including job share. We operate an anonymous sift approach so that identifying characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and age are not available to be seen by the selection panel at the sift stage.