Thank you for your recent communication to Mr Portillo, concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces.

The Ministry of Defence continues to take the view that the special nature of Service life precludes homosexuality in the Armed Forces. The conditions of military life are very different from those in civilian life. Service personnel can be required to live in close proximity with each other in shared, single-sex accommodation with very limited personal privacy; they may also be obliged to work for long periods in physically close quarters, sometimes under great stress. The Department believes that these conditions, together with the need for absolute trust and confidence between all ranks, require that the potentially disruptive influence of homosexual behaviour and relationships be excluded.

We do not believe that there is any existing domestic or European law which requires the Armed Forces to accept homosexual personnel. Our policy was challenged in May of last year in the High Court by four former Service personnel, who had been discharged on ground of their homosexuality. The High Court found that our policy was lawful under UK domestic law and that the EC Equal Treatment Directive did not apply. This judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal, which, on 3 November 1995, dismissed an appeal against the High Court ruling.

Although the High Court made clear that any decision on the future of the policy should rest with Parliament, it did recommend that the policy be re-examined in the light of changing social attitudes and the experience of other countries where homosexuality is not a formal bar to service. Accordingly, the Ministry of Defence decided to conduct an internal assessment of the current policy with a view to presenting a paper of evidence to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill, which is examining the issue as part of the quinquennial review of the Service Discipline Acts. The Policy Assessment Team's report was made available to Parliament on 4 March; after careful and comprehensive examination of all the available evidence, it concluded that the admission of homosexuals to the Armed Forces would have a detrimental impact on the fighting power of the Services, and for this reason, homosexuality still remained incompatible with military life if the Armed Forces were to be maintained at their full operational efectiveness. The Report therefore recommended that there should be no change to the existing policy, and the Ministry of Defence has accepted this recommendation. Homosexuals will, therefore, continue to be discharged from the Armed Forces in accordance with the current policy.

The Ministry of Defence has submitted a paper of evidence, based on the Policy Assessment Team's Report, to the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee to assist with its deliberations on the subject.

I hope that this is helpful.

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