§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will instigate an inquiry into the publication by a tribunal deciding the issue of compensation in a pregnancy dismissal case, and of a woman's medical records produced by counsel acting for his Department without the woman's consent.
§ Mr. SoamesSuch documents may properly be disclosed to a court or tribunal in the course of legal proceedings to which they are relevant. Industrial tribunals are judicial bodies which are wholly independent of my Department.
§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the sums of financial compensation paid to former members of the armed services who were judged by industrial tribunals to have been dismissed unfairly because of their pregnancies; and what was the commissioned or non-commissioned status of those women who were compensated.
§ Mr. SoamesUp to 13 December, industrial tribunal decisions on the amount of compensation due for dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy have resulted in 151 payments totalling £4,397,095 to 10 officers, average £58,018, and 141 other ranks, average £27,070. However, these payments include some made recently but relating to cases heard by tribunals before the employment appeal tribunal issued its helpful guidance in July, since when the level of new awards has fallen. Furthermore, tribunal awards represent only a small proportion of the 3,428 pregnancy claims—75 per cent. of the claims received—which have now been settled for an overall average of about £10,000 for all ranks.