Discrimination against members of the armed forces in the United Kingdom

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Incidents have been reported of discrimination against soldiers of the armed forces of the United Kingdom, comprising the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force. [1]

In December 2007, the British Prime Minister requested a report to evaluate the relationship between "our Armed Forces and the rest of society". [2] : 3  The report details the following incidents: [2] : 39–40 

Other incidents of discrimination and harassment against soldiers reported in the media were not detailed in the report as they had not been corroborated. [2] : 40 

On 4 September 2008, the Metro Hotel in Woking refused a wounded soldier a room, forcing him to spend the night in his car. [3]

There were incidents of public houses banning soldiers in 2002. [4]

Concerning the case of the Metro Hotel, legal experts confirmed that it was not against the law for hotel staff to turn away a potential customer because of his or her job. [5] The report to the Prime Minister states that "It is quite intolerable that those who wear the Queen’s uniform should be denied access to public or commercial services as a result, but there is no legal protection for the targets of such discrimination." [2] : 17 

Proposals to improve the situation are limited to the "legal protection of the uniform". [2] : 6  Thus a hotel could presumably still refuse an officer who did not wear his uniform.[ original research? ] For example, the Metro Hotel refused the non-uniformed soldier when he presented his Army identification card. [3] Some members of the public have taken matters into their own hands. Metro Hotel had to call the police as their lines were flooded with angry, abusive and threatening calls. [3] Mr Kai Graf von der Pahlen and Mr Taha Idris of the Swansea Bay Racial Equality Council published research on "soldier discrimination" [6] that raises the question whether such discrimination could constitute unlawful indirect gender discrimination. The research shows that male soldiers may have a case for unlawful gender discrimination because most of the soldiers of the UK Armed Forces are male. The discriminator is thus effectively excluding a predominantly (approximately 90%) male group of people, which is classed as "indirect gender discrimination" under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and therefore unlawful. [6]

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References

  1. ↑ Ministry of Defence [internet] http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Home
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Davies, Q., Clark, B., and Sharp, M. (May, 2008). "Report of Inquiry into National Recognition of our Armed Forces, Report to the Prime Minister".
  3. 1 2 3 Fletcher, Hannah (5 September 2008). "Soldier forced to sleep in car after hotel refuses him a room". The Times . Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  4. ↑ "Soldiers banned from pubs in Stamford". BBC News. 6 July 2002. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  5. ↑ Staples, J. (2008). "Soldier is turfed out of hotel for being in Army". Metro, 5 September 2008, p.5
  6. 1 2 Graf Pahlen, K. and Idris, T., "Joining Forces", Solicitors Journal, Vol. 153 no 43, 17 November 2009.
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