Armed forces recruits to be quizzed on sexuality in bid to improve diversity

Recruiters for the British armed forces will ask candidates whether they are gay, in a move to improve diversity in the military.

Gay soldiers have been allowed in the UK armed forces since 2000 but from now on details of the service personnel’s sexual preference will be stored, and recruits will have the option to “prefer not to say”. The measure has been introduced in a bid to foster greater tolerance within the military.

Recruits will also be invited to provide additional information on how open they feel they can be regarding their sexual orientation. The information will be anonymised before being collated to ensure no one can be identified by their personal diversity information.