§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what purpose the Army produced and published a paper entitled "The Military Ethos (The Maintenance of Standards)" in January 1994; to whom it was distributed; and with what instructions for onward transmission. [22715]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 25 March 1996]: The purpose of the Army paper "The Military Ethos (The Maintenance of Standards)", is to explain the requirement for high standards of personal conduct and respect for law demanded of those in military service. Before the paper was promulgated, the Army had issued edicts on various subjects such as drug misuse, but without fully explaining the reasons behind them. The paper is intended to make all serving Army personnel, recruits and members of the Territorial Army conversant with the standards required of them, and the reasons behind them.
The paper was issued on 21 October 1993 and distributed to commanders in chief, all commands and districts both home and abroad. Commanding officers were instructed to bring the paper to the attention of all ranks. To that end, commanding officers were to set aside time to explain personally these issues to their officers and senior non-commissioned officers to ensure that the message was understood.