Ten Military Training Sites Face Their First Independent Inquiry
Polly Miller-Perkins, the new Armed Forces Commissioner and a former air commodore, has opened her first investigation: into ten training establishments in England, among them the Army Foundation College at Harrogate, Sandhurst and Britannia Royal Naval College. It follows four young women telling the BBC in August that they were sexually assaulted and harassed at Harrogate.
One said she was raped by several fellow junior soldiers in an attack that lasted hours. Harrogate trains under-18s, which is what makes the oversight question sharp rather than merely serious. Miller-Perkins calls the allegations “absolutely appalling” and says the reporting “brought into sharp focus” potential problems including predatory behaviour towards women: “I already had concerns, but there’s absolutely no doubt that your report reinforced these concerns.” On the first phase of training she is blunt that “it’s up to the MoD to bring those individuals up to the values and standards that would be expected in a modern armed forces — and that includes respect for women.” She visits all ten sites in November, can arrive unannounced and compel information, and expects early findings in the new year. The defence secretary Wes Streeting says he expects every woman who serves “to be treated with respect, with decency”; the ministry welcomed independent scrutiny and noted the college’s outstanding Ofsted report. The counterweight is a survivor with no confidence in the process at all: “military life is ingrained in you — it’s hard to step away from that and see the faults.” The commissioner’s answer: “I understand trust has to be earned.”