---

Armed Forces: Complaints

Answer

Information regarding how many Service Complaints have been received, and how many have not been upheld, is publicly available and can be found in the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces Annual Report statistics available at the following link: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-statisticals-tables. Please note that the most recent year for which information is currently available is 2023.

The data you have requested is shown in Annex A, below, by Service. Please note that Complaints are recorded by Service and not Command and therefore no data is available for Strategic Command.

ANNEX A Number of Royal Navy Service Complaints*, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023
Year	Career management	Bullying, harassment or discrimination1	Pay, pensions and allowances	Other1	All complaint categories
2019	69	24	32	37	162
2020	49	37	22	37	145
2021	56	36	21	36	149
2022	77	59	20	42	198
2023	95	55	43	90	283
% annual growth	23%	-7%	115%	114%	43%
* including Royal Marine Service Complaints
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination"
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System

Number of Army Service Complaints, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023
Year	Career management	Bullying, harassment or discrimination1	Pay, pensions and allowances	Other1	All complaint categories
2019	171	131	55	100	457
2020	179	130	46	76	431
2021	129	135	27	76	367
2022	191	128	39	124	482
2023	204	147	50	213	614
% annual growth	7%	15%	28%	72%	27%
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination"
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System

Number of RAF Service Complaints, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023
Year	Career Management	Bullying, harassment or discrimination1	Pay, pensions and allowances	Other1	All complaint categories
2019	44	39	27	37	147
2020	63	31	24	35	153
2021	73	61	36	63	233
2022	96	40	25	94	255
2023	129	60	53	86	328
% annual growth	34%	50%	112%	-9%	29%
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination"
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System

Number of Royal Navy* closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023
Outcome	Career management	Bullying, harassment or discrimination	Pay, pensions and allowances	Other	All closed Service Complaints
Complaint fully/partially upheld	27	25	13	28	93
Complaint not upheld	36	19	9	27	91
Other outcome	36	14	12	21	83
Total	99	58	34	76	267
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant	27%	43%	38%	37%	35%
% not upheld	36%	33%	26%	36%	34%
% other outcome	36%	24%	35%	28%	31%
* includes Royal Marines
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System

Number of Army closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023
Outcome	Career management	Bullying, harassment or discrimination	Pay, pensions and allowances	Other	All closed Service Complaints
Complaint fully/partially upheld	104	70	29	75	278
Complaint not upheld	50	61	11	47	169
Other outcome	79	42	14	46	181
Total	233	173	54	168	628
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant	45%	40%	54%	45%	44%
% not upheld	21%	35%	20%	28%	27%
% other outcome	34%	24%	26%	27%	29%
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System

Number of RAF closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023
Outcome	Career management	Bullying, harassment or discrimination	Pay, pensions and allowances	Other	All closed Service Complaints
Complaint fully/partially upheld	28	17	17	24	86
Complaint not upheld	62	22	13	29	126
Other outcome	20	19	13	23	75
Total	110	58	43	76	287
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant	25%	29%	40%	32%	30%
% not upheld	56%	38%	30%	38%	44%
% other outcome	18%	33%	30%	30%	26%
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL4755

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Complaints Armed forces

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk