‘Disbelief’ as under-manned Royal Navy seeks to re-deploy officers to diversity and inclusion team

Jan 28, 2024 by Jill

by Steven Edginton, Telegraph:

Former First Sea Lord calls for the roles to be scrapped as the service faces personnel shortfalls and missed targets.

The Royal Navy is redeploying marines and sailors to become diversity and inclusion officers to enhance the “lived experience” of personnel amid ongoing recruitment challenges in manning its ships.

Three internal Navy job advertisements, seen by The Telegraph, seek to attract serving sailors and marines to work on diversity policy. The roles are based in Navy Command HQ [NCHQ] in Portsmouth and are intended to “improve the lived experience of our people”.

A Navy source told The Telegraph: “At a time when we’re massively undermanned, why does NCHQ want yet more people to concentrate on diversity and inclusion? You can imagine the sort of power-hungry social justice warriors this will attract too. We’re already inclusive; diversity will increase in time with the population.”

Lord West, who served as the First Sea Lord from 2002 to 2006, told The Telegraph: “Taking people from key and important roles to focus on diversity is nonsense. The Royal Navy has lost the plot.

“Obsessing over diversity and inclusion actually leads to recruitment issues. One needs just to look at the RAF’s positive discrimination schemes, which led to the exclusion of some white men. These diversity roles should be scrapped immediately.”

Read here (£)