Armed Forces: Sexual Offences
(asked on 12th October 2026) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases of sexual violence have been reported in each of the armed services each year from 2016.
Information about cases of sexual violence that have been handled within the Armed Forces is reported in the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) annual Official Statistic publications of Murder, Manslaughter, Sexual Offences and Domestic Abuse in the Service Justice System.
The table below shows how many sexual offence investigations were conducted by each Service Police Force in the relevant years.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
RNP | 17 | 18 | 22 | 27 | 23 | 43 | 62 | 1 | 4 | 406 |
RMP | 72 | 93 | 93 | 111 | 102 | 156 | 188 | 5 | 2 | |
RAFP | 24 | 24 | 31 | 35 | 29 | 25 | 45 | 3 | 0 | |
Joint | x | x | 7 | 5 | 7 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 11 | |
DSCC | x | x | x | x | x | x | 35 | 262 | 340 |
Key: RNP = Royal Navy Police; RMP = Royal Military Police; RAFP = Royal Air Force Police; DSCC = Defence Serious Crime Command
As shown in the table, the DSCC became operational on 5 December 2022 (they take primacy for investigating all serious crime in Defence) and reporting in the Official Statistics for 2025 was changed to show one total number of service police investigations. Investigations that were transferred to Civilian Police Forces, and those reported as sexual offences but then reclassified to a non-sexual offence have not been included in these statistics. Commanding Officers have a legal obligation to notify the service police if they become aware that a sexual offence may have taken place.
Further data, including the number of reported victims and suspects, and a breakdown of Service within each of those categories, can be found in the data tables published each year at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sexual-offences-in-the-service-justice-system
The MOD is continuing to take action to give greater confidence to those reporting criminal behaviour and step up support across Defence. This includes a Whistleblowing in Defence Review, stronger measures in the Armed Forces Bill to protect victims, our Violence Against Women and Girls Taskforce pilot, and the recent launch of the Independent Legal Advice pilot for victim-survivors of sexual offences within the Service Justice System.