Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the most recent armed forces continuous attitude survey, and (2) any dissatisfaction within the Royal Marines revealed in that survey.

The Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS) provides long standing and valuable data on understanding how Service personnel feel about key issues. This evidence helps to inform the development of people policies and processes across Defence and within the individual Services. The AFCAS results are reviewed by the Defence Board, Service Chiefs and throughout Defence to identify key issues and to consider how they can be addressed.

The Department recognises that the 2018 results show further decreases in the morale of our Service personnel and is taking steps to address those concerns and to enhance the positive aspects and experiences of Service life. Issues previously identified in the AFCAS have already informed the development of a range of programmes under way across Defence and the single Services including Flexible Service, the Future Accommodation Model and the Enterprise Approach.

The leadership of the Royal Marines visits units on a regular basis and takes trends in morale extremely seriously. The Royal Marines Chain of Command will consider the findings of AFCAS 2018 carefully and work with members of the Royal Marine Corps to better understand the causes of any changes in attitudes. In addition, the Royal Marines will continue to run focussed engagement events to attempt to understand changes in attitudes in more detail.