British Army chief of staff General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith has said that an independent audit of the Army’s culture will be carried out, following concerns around incidents of bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination within its ranks.
The announcement came following talks with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, which addressed ministerial concern around culture and discipline within the Armed Forces.
Conservative MP and former soldier, Sarah Atherton, has previously highlighted issues around bullying and sexual harassment against women in the Armed Forces, which were documented in a report published by the Commons Defence Committee.
The report uncovered that a staggering two thirds of the 4,000 women who gave evidence had been victims of bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination during their service, issues which the Defence Secretary has promised to address.
In two separate statements following a “full and frank” meeting between the General and Defence Secretary, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith said that the Army’s leadership would move decisively to “accelerate cultural changes” needed to underpin the “operational effectiveness” of the Armed Forces.
The General added that the subsequent audit would “reinforce the best and weed out the worst” in the British Army.
One of the statements indicated that the action to be taken would involve a review of “selection, education and training” for commanders from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and above to “better prepare” candidates for the “challenges of command”. A more focused education, training and pastoral support for all undergoing Army training was also promised as part of impending reforms.
In the other statement, the General and Defence Secretary acknowledged that recent events had highlighted “core and cultural issues” which required “all our people to play their part in resolving”.
Ahead of the talks with General Carleton-Smith, Wallace said that he had approached the Army to ascertain how culture and discipline issues would be dealt with, labelling the problems as “unacceptable”.
An Armed Forces spokesperson also said prior to the discussions that the Defence Secretary was working in tandem with Army leaders to “drive out unacceptable behaviour at all levels”.
Elsewhere, a probe into the 2019 death of Olivia Perks, a female recruit at Sandhurst’s Royal Military Academy who committed suicide, has raised wider concerns around the level of care and support provided to vulnerable women serving in the Armed Forces.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
