Females ‘too terrified’ to report bullying and harassment
Female service personnel are “too terrified” to make formal complaints over harassment and bullying, because of a “culture of fear” within the British Army, a Labour MP has claimed.
Madeleine Moon, who sits on the Commons Defence Select Committee, said women were fearful about the impact raising a formal complaint would have on their career and their working relationships.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, Moon said the Army were not tough enough on dealing with complaints, and needed to get better at communicating vital messages.
“You get the general statement about ‘we abhor all discrimination and we are opposed to and will strike it down’, but actually there is not a clear message coming all the way down,” she said.
The MP for Bridgend, Wales, said female personnel faced discrimination “at every level” of the organisation and sexual intimidation and bullying was "tolerated a far greater extent" in the Army, compared with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
“Within the Navy, it’s an issue of discipline and awareness that you cannot have disharmony on a ship,” she said.
“If you’ve got two or three women on a ship you cannot have discrimination and harassment because it undermines morale, so they deal with it very firmly.”
Service complaints about bullying, harassment and discrimination accounted for 43 per cent of all Army allegations in 2012, up by a third on the year before. This is compared to 9 per cent of all allegations made in the Naval Service and 38 per cent in the RAF.
“There seems to be a total denial of its existence and they [the Army] hide behind terms such as banter and horseplay,” Moon told the BBC.
She called for better role models; more help lines for personnel to access anonymously, and clearer top-down messages.
Earlier this year, the secretary of state for defence, Philip Hammond, announced changes to the way bullying and abuse cases are dealt with in the armed forces.
Under the new watchdog, military personnel will be able to take complaints they believe have not been properly dealt with to an independent ombudsman, the service complaints commission, under Dr Susan Atkins.
“This should bring substantial improvements to the fairness of the complaints system, the time it takes for complaints to be resolved and increase the level of confidence service personnel have in the process," Dr Atkins said at the time.