§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 13 March 1998,Official Report, column 427, what alterations to the regulations for submission of complaints by ex-service personnel were introduced in October 1997; under what statute; and for what reasons. [37396]
§ Dr. Reid[holding answer 2 April 1998]: The Armed Forces Act 1996 amended the Services Discipline Acts (the Naval Discipline Act 1957, the Army Act 1955 and the Air Force Act 1955) to provide a statutory right, for the first time, for ex-Service personnel to submit a complaint to the Defence Council. At the same time, provision was made for a time limit of not less than three months to be prescribed in Queen's Regulations for the submission of complaints from both serving and ex-Service personnel. Prior to this, there was no statutory provision for ex-Service personnel to submit complaints although complaints were accepted for investigation on a discretionary basis. This change was made to ensure that ex-Service personnel were afforded the same rights as serving personnel. Queen's Regulations now provide for
54Wprovided in tabular format. Accordingly, the answers to your questions can be found at Annex A to this letter.
By way of amplification, I should just explain that the staff numbers quoted are in fact average figures for the whole financial year 1996/97. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is situated at Taunton, Somerset and as you will see. 98.1% of UKHO staff are based there. There are, however, a number of staff—16 in total—housed in Chart Maintenance Units (CMUs). These CMUs are located in major Royal Navy bases throughout the UK. In terms of Scotland there are 4 UKHO staff based in the CMU at Faslane; these are the only UKHO staff located in Scotland as I hope reference to Annex A will explain.
I hope this reply has been of assistance. Please do not hesitate to get in touch should you need any further amplification.
a time limit for the submission of complaints of three months from the date of the action complained of. These new provisions came into effect on 1 October 1997.