Dear Sir,

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your enquiry submitted on 19 January 2009, which is considered to be a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. I am responding on behalf of the information holders.

You asked the following:

Under the Freedom of Information Laws could you please provide the following information:

Since the foundation of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 could you please indicate the following:

1. How many people are serving in HM Forces that are known to be gay? (Please give answers broken down by service).

2. How many military charges have been brought since 2005 as a result of inappropriate sexual acts?

Within the Armed Forces a person's sexuality is considered to be a private life matter. The Armed Forces do not currently ask about, or record, a person's sexual orientation.

With regard to the number of military charges brought since 2005 as a result of inappropriate sexual acts, the Armed Forces only hold information about the number of personnel who have faced Court Martial on charges of rape or sexual assault. These are as follows:

Notes:

All figures are rounded to the nearest 5.

~ denotes less than 5.

If you are unhappy with this response or wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of this request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you remain dissatisfied, then you may apply for an internal review by contacting the Director of Information Exploitation, 6^th floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London SW1A 2HB (email: [email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within two calendar months of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end.

If you are still unhappy following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully,

C A Reynolds

DG SP Pol