§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many incidents of racism have been investigated by his Department in each of the last five years; [20754]
(2) what measures his Department uses to monitor racism in the armed forces. [20804]
§ Mr. SoamesThe armed forces are fully integrated, non-discriminatory organisations, subject to the Race Relations Act 1976. It has been made clear throughout the services that racial abuse or discrimination of any sort will not be tolerated.
The three services monitor complaints involving a racial element; details of numbers of recorded cases are:
Royal Navy
No cases have been recorded in the Royal Navy since the central recording of these complaints began in February 1995.
Number of cases Number of cases substantiated Army 1990 3 Nil 1991 4 1 1992 7 3 1993 5 3 1994 4 Nil 1995 16 — 1996 11 — Royal Air Force 1990 0 — 1991 2 Nil 1992 3 Nil 1993 2 1 1994 1 Nil 1995 3 1 1 Four under investigation in 1995 and 1 in 1996. As for civilian staff within the Department, the information requested is not available centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.