RAF diversity targets discriminated against white men

Initiatives to summation the numbers of women and radical from taste minorities successful the RAF led to amerciable affirmative discrimination, an enquiry has found.

The caput of the RAF has admitted immoderate men were discriminated against.

The interior enquiry was sparked by the resignation of a pistillate RAF Group Captain who told her superiors the argumentation penalised achromatic men.

The enquiry recovered she had faced important and unreasonable unit to conscionable diverseness targets.

These targets were acceptable by the past Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Mike Wigston, to summation the proportionality of women and radical from taste minorities successful the RAF.

But the unnamed elder pistillate RAF recruitment serviceman told her superiors that accelerated tracking women and taste minorities was contrary to the equality enactment and discriminated against achromatic men.

The inquiry, conducted by the Ministry of Defence, recovered the unit to conscionable those targets led to illegal, affirmative discrimination.

The RAF had argued its policies were not unlawful and amounted to affirmative action, not discrimination.

The caller caput of the RAF, Sir Richard Knighton, has present admitted that immoderate men were discriminated against, and apologised.

They see a radical of 31 who were held backmost successful training, who person present been compensated.

The RAF has besides admitted its people for 40% of the unit to beryllium pistillate and 20% from an taste number inheritance by 2030 is unrealistic.

However nary idiosyncratic has been named oregon blamed for trying to instrumentality the policy.

The pistillate Gp Capt who archetypal blew the whistle and resigned is inactive expected to instrumentality the RAF to an employment tribunal.

An MoD connection said the unit the erstwhile Gp Capt was subjected to was "significant, and astatine times unreasonable; but that did not magnitude to organization oregon idiosyncratic bullying".

It said that anterior to her appointment, 161 taste number and pistillate candidates had been pulled guardant onto signifier 1 grooming up of different candidates.

"We recovered that concerns were raised astatine the time, but that those who led the initiatives believed they were 'pushing the boundaries' of affirmative enactment alternatively than acting unlawfully," it added.

The MoD added that the erstwhile Gp Capt's resignation was "potentially avoidable" and her resignation missive included "fair criticisms which were aboriginal proved to beryllium justified that her determination to resign was some understandable and reasonable".

The 72-page study made 12 recommendations which it said are being implemented, including improving the whistleblowing argumentation and guidance connected what constitutes unlawful affirmative favoritism and lawful affirmative action.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the attraction of radical had been "wrong."

Speaking astatine a property briefing astatine Canada House successful London helium said: "While the full happening has been, I think, a important mistake and so a origin for regret for the RAF, they didn't little the standard.

"They discriminated against those radical that were applying [with people] who were supra the standard, truthful our subject level wasn't enactment astatine risk.

"However, the attraction of the radical applying - it was wrong, unsatisfactory."