Dr. Tony WrightTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will release the information held by his Department on the number of airmen during the Second World War who were classified as lacking moral fibre; and if he will take steps to remove this classification from service records. [81341]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonAircrews in the Second World War included personnel from all three Services, although the Royal Air Force were the only Service to use the classification of "lacking moral fibre". Cases where aircrew had significant psychological problems were dealt with by administrative procedures and fell into two categories; those which were seen as having medical causes, and those where the determination and reliability of the airman in the face of danger were doubted. It was the latter category that were actually classed as "lacking moral fibre".
The Royal Air Force has no central record of officers/airmen classified as "lacking moral fibre" during World War H and this information could be obtained only 103W through a manual check of individual personnel files. Whilst it might be possible to obtain background information on officers categorised as "lacking moral fibre", airmen's personal files will have been destroyed, and only a basic Record of Service retained. It would not therefore be possible to discover any background information on the reasons behind any "lack of moral fibre" annotation recorded on an individual airman's record.
Service Records are amended only on those rare occasions when there is irrefutable evidence that inaccurate information has been entered. The Ministry of Defence therefore has no plans to review those cases categorised as "lacking moral fibre" during World War II, or to remove this classification from those airmen's individual records which have survived.