Service Complaint

A service complaint is the statutory grievance mechanism available to members of the UK armed forces. Part 14A of the Armed Forces Act 2006, inserted by the Armed Forces (Service Complaints and Financial Assistance) Act 2015, provides in section 340A(1) that 'if a person subject to service law thinks himself or herself wronged in any matter relating to his or her service, the person may make a complaint.' The right is not limited to serving personnel: section 340A(2) extends it to former service members, who 'may make a complaint about the matter' where they think themselves wronged in relation to their service 'which occurred while he or she was so subject.'

Not every grievance qualifies. The Secretary of State can, by regulations made under section 340A(4), place categories of complaint outside the scope of the statutory system altogether, and the wider Part 14A framework — supplemented by service complaints regulations — sets minimum time limits (a minimum three-month complaint window) and admissibility criteria that a complaint must meet before it proceeds.

Oversight of how the system operates independently of the chain of command has moved over time: the function of reviewing admissibility decisions and providing external oversight, formerly exercised by the Service Complaints Ombudsman, became a function of the Armed Forces Commissioner following the Armed Forces Commissioner Act 2025. This external safeguard exists precisely because a service complaint is, by its nature, made by someone still subject to (or recently subject to) military command structures, and an independent check on how the chain of command handles complaints is considered essential to the system's credibility.