Incidents have been reported of discrimination against soldiers of the armed forces of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, comprising the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
.
In December 2007, the
British Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
requested a report to evaluate the relationship between "our Armed Forces and the rest of society".
[Davies, Q., Clark, B., and Sharp, M. (May, 2008)]
"Report of Inquiry into National Recognition of our Armed Forces, Report to the Prime Minister".
/ref> The report details the following incidents:[
*Troops returning from Afghanistan were told to change into civilian clothes at ]Birmingham Airport
Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...
in December 2007.
*Troops returning from Afghanistan into Edinburgh Airport
Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by t ...
were directed away from the public areas through ad hoc facilities in 2007.
*Patients from the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court
Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court (abbreviated to DMRC Headley Court, and more commonly known as Headley Court), formerly RAF Headley Court, was an United Kingdom Ministry of Defence facility in Headley, near Epsom, Surrey, Eng ...
were subjected to verbal abuse in November 2007.
*RAF personnel were banned from wearing uniform in Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
after incidents of verbal abuse.
Other incidents of discrimination and harassment against soldiers reported in the media were not detailed in the report as they had not been corroborated.[
On 4 September 2008, the Metro Hotel in ]Woking
Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...
refused a wounded soldier a room, forcing him to spend the night in his car.
There were incidents of public houses banning soldiers in 2002.
Current legal practice
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.[Staples, J. (2008). "Soldier is turfed out of hotel for being in Army". Metro, 5 September 2008, p.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."[
Proposals to improve the situation are limited to the "legal protection of the uniform".][ Thus a hotel could presumably still refuse an officer who did not wear his uniform.{{or , date=July 2011 For example, the Metro Hotel refused the non-uniformed soldier when he presented his Army identification card.][ 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.][ Mr Kai Graf von der ]Pahlen
The House of Pahlen (german: von der Pahlen; russian: link=no, Пален, Palen) is a German, Estonian, Russian, Lithuanian, Swedish and Baltic German noble family of Pomeranian origin.
History
The family probably originated from Pomerania, ...
and Mr Taha Idris of the Swansea Bay Racial Equality Council published research on "soldier discrimination"[Graf Pahlen, K. and Idris, T., "Joining Forces"]
Solicitors Journal
Vol. 153 no 43, 17 November 2009. that raises the question whether such discrimination could constitute unlawful indirect gender discrimination
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...
. 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
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (c. 65) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which protected men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status. The Act concerned employment, training, education, harassment, ...
and therefore unlawful.[
]
References
Military of the United Kingdom
Discrimination in the United Kingdom