To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the result was of the review of monitoring arrangements of the extent of bullying in the armed forces referred to in paragraph 75 of the Government's response to the third report from the Defence Committee of Session 2004-05, on duty of care, Cm. 6620; and what steps he has taken to reduce under-reporting of bullying. (232578)

In 2006 the Joint Service Publication (JSP) 763 'The MOD Harassment Complaints Procedures' was issued. This provides guidance to all MOD Service and civilian personnel about making, responding to, advising on, investigating, and deciding on, complaints of harassment and bullying.

Reporting of incidents of bullying and harassment improved following the issue of JSP 763. Annex P to JSP 763 describes how logs are to be kept recording all complaints (formal and informal) reported through unit equality and diversity advisors. Statistics from the logs are consolidated at single Service level biannually and subsequently analysed on a tri-Service basis to identify trends and lessons learned.