Ingram: New Deepcut review, but no public inquiry
The Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram, has announced that there will be a new review of allegations of bullying and abuse at Deepcut barracks in Surrey.
However, he stopped short of agreeing to demands from the Liberal Democrats and SNP for a full public inquiry.
Mr Ingram’s statement to the Commons follows intensive media coverage on an annex to Surrey Police’s report into the barracks, in which over 150 allegations of bullying, violence or sexual abuse were listed.
The Minister told MPs that he “strongly refutes the allegations that this is a leaked document”, telling his listeners that the document had been made available to the Commons Defence Select Committee investigation.
Mr Ingram said that any such allegations were taken very seriously, and though military training must be ‘robust’ to prepare soldiers for military operation, violence and intimidation is not acceptable.
He called for the document to be treated with caution, stressing that the level of detail is “sparse” much of it is “hearsay” and “this document does not contain evidence, it contains allegations”.
The majority of the allegations claimed physical and sexual harassment, he went on, while nine alleged rape. Of the nine rape claims, six had been investigated and two had been substantiated. There had been one conviction, while a claim of multiple rape continued to be investigated.
No further inquiries would be made by Surrey police, he told MPs, with only two people who made accusations so far consenting to their names being passed to the Royal Military Police.
However, although he is convinced that everything that can be done is being done, Mr Ingram said that he accepted the need for the public to see action is being taken, and is hence setting up an independent review.
More details of this review will be announced in due course.
Responding, the Shadow Defence Minister Gerald Howarth cast doubts on the Ministers’ ability to deliver a resolution to the Deepcut army barracks controversy, citing the “universal mistrust in the Prime Minister and government generally”.
Although resisting calls for a full independent public inquiry, he warned the Government that they risk undermining public confidence in the army’s ability to discharge the duty of care to young recruits, should these controversies fail to be addressed.
He criticised the failure of Ministers to implement recommendations made in the aftermath on six internal army inquiries spanning 1998 to 2003, before referring to reports in an evening paper which purportedly highlight underfunding in the army’s training and recruitment agency. Mr Howarth was also cynical about the appointment of another review – pointing out that the Adult Learning Inspectorate had only been appointed six months ago to carry out an audit of training.
