Call for Evidence

On 25 July 2021, the Defence Sub-Committee published the report of the ‘landmark’ Women in the Armed Forces inquiry. Our report made a series of recommendations to the Government to improve the experiences of female Service personnel and veterans, drawing on the suggestions of over 4,000 military women: Women in the Armed Forces: From Recruitment to Civilian Life (parliament.uk)

The Government’s response was published on 2 December 2021. The response indicated that the Government would accept the majority of our Committee’s recommendations: Protecting those who protect us: Women in the Armed Forces from Recruitment to Civilian Life: Government Response to the Committee’s Second Report of Session 2021-22 (parliament.uk)

In November 2022, the Committee plans to hold a public evidence session with a Minister from the Ministry of Defence, to assess the Government’s progress on the recommendations of the Women in the Armed Forces inquiry report.

To inform this session, we are launching a short call for written evidence, to find out more about relevant changes in the Armed Forces over the last year. The MOD has confirmed that current service personnel are permitted to give evidence. The Committee is also especially interested to hear from veterans and from organisations with links to multiple service personnel and veterans, such as families’ federations and NGOs. Contributors do not have to cover all the topics that were considered in the original inquiry.

The Committee welcomes written evidence on one or more of the following points:

• How much change has there been in the last year, when it comes to improving the experiences of female Service personnel and/or female veterans?
• What specific changes are you aware of?
• Are there areas where you hope to see more change? Do you see ‘easy wins’ for the Services/MOD?
• What has helped or hindered change?

The Committee normally publishes written evidence that meets parliamentary rules. Please state in your submission if you wish for the Committee to keep it confidential or to anonymise it before publication. Our default will be to anonymise any submissions that include identifying information about specific individuals.

Each submission should be no longer than 3,000 words and contain a brief introduction about the author. Submissions should be in malleable format such as MS Word (not PDFs) with no use of colour or logos. Further guidance is available here:  Submitting written evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee (parliament.uk).