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Written question asked by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative) on Wednesday, 5 February 2025, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 February 2025. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 19 February 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces: Complaints

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government how long, on average, it takes (1) the Army, (2) the Royal Navy, (3) the Royal Air Force, and (4) Strategic Command, to process a service complaint; and what estimate they have made of the cost of each complaint.

Answer

This information is available in the public domain. The average time required to process a Service Complaint is contained within the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces Annual Report statistics which are available at the following link: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-statisticals-tables.

The information you have requested on the average time required to process a Service Complaint is shown in Annex A, below.

No information is held about the cost of each complaint. This information is not routinely recorded and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Annex A

Average¹ time taken² to close a Service Complaint, by Service and complaint category, 2023

Service

Career management

Bullying, harassment or discrimination

Pay, pensions and allowances

Other

All closed Service Complaints

Royal Navy*

20

37

22

23

23

Army

18

34

30

24

24

RAF

16

22

14

19

18

Tri-Service

18

29

20

22

22

* includes Royal Marines

1 Median.

2 Time taken is measured in weeks.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL4756
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Complaints Armed forces Costs Standards
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk