Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-09-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they made of the risks to national security and to service personnel before publishing the names of soldiers and potential recruits online.

Earl Howe

The Armed Forces have a long history of publishing a nominal roll of serving officers, in the form of the ‘The Navy List’, ‘The Army List’ and the ‘The Air Force List’, generically known as the Armed Forces Lists.

The Armed Forces Lists’ information was first published online in 2014, following requests under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and as part of our overall commitment to transparency. This information was judged to be releasable, having previously been published annually for over 200 years.

In September 2015, the policy on the publication of the Armed Forces Lists was reviewed and a decision was made to significantly reduce the information published, limiting this to information on officers at one star rank (Brigadier and equivalents) and above, except in respect of the Royal Navy. Details of those officers commanding a warship would continue to be published through release of a suitable version of the ‘Fleet Bridge Card’, which provides information on the number of RN Senior officers in command of the Fleet, the Flotillas and the warships. This decision was informed by advice on security risks. The previous Service Lists published on the Gov.uk website have now been removed.

Names of soldiers at Warrant Officer rank and below and potential recruits have never been published online in the Armed Forces Lists.