The Ministry of Defence has made the Armed Forces (Service Complaints Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, a focused update to the rules that support the armed forces service complaints system. According to the instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Regulations were made on 6 October 2026 and will come into force on 3 November 2026. The Secretary of State acted under sections 340A(4), 340N(4) and 373(5) of the Armed Forces Act 2006. The preamble also records that a draft of the instrument was laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House. The Regulations were signed by Calvin Bailey, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, on 6 October 2026.
The first set of changes is largely about statutory consistency. Regulation 2 amends the 2015 Regulations so that references to the 'appropriate officer' are removed and replaced with references to the 'appropriate person'. The new term takes its meaning from section 340N(2) of the Armed Forces Act 2006 rather than being separately defined in the 2015 instrument. That matters because secondary legislation now tracks the wording used in the parent Act. For departments, case-handlers and advisers, the practical task is straightforward but important: forms, template letters and internal guidance that still use the earlier expression will need to reflect the revised statutory language from commencement.
A second change affects what may be challenged through the service complaints route. Regulation 3 of the 2015 Regulations is amended so that a decision made under regulations for the purposes of section 340D(2)(ca), namely a decision about whether an appeal has been brought on valid grounds, is added to the list of excluded complaints. In policy terms, this draws a firmer boundary around the complaints system. A person may not use a service complaint to contest that particular validity decision, even though other eligible grievances can still proceed under the wider scheme. The amendment therefore separates a threshold appeal question from the merits of a complaint itself.
The 2026 instrument also rewrites part of regulation 6 on notifications to the Commissioner. Under the revised text, the relevant person must notify the Commissioner that the individual concerned, identified as 'P', has been informed that the allegation has been referred, that section 340N(3)(b) has been complied with, and whether P wishes to make a service complaint in respect of the alleged wrong. The explanatory note describes these as minor amendments that also modernise the drafting. Although technical in form, the change gives a clearer statutory sequence for referrals and notifications, which should assist those managing complaint-related allegations inside the armed forces system.
Regulation 3 of the 2026 instrument deals with cases already in train before commencement. Where an allegation was referred to the appropriate officer under section 340N(1) before 3 November 2026, it is to be treated on and after that date, for the purposes of notification requirements under regulation 6, as if it had been referred to the appropriate person. The transitional wording also covers obligations that arose before commencement but had not yet been complied with by that date. This avoids an administrative gap between the old and new terminology and reduces the risk of procedural uncertainty for live files that cross the commencement boundary.
The territorial extent is wider than Great Britain alone. According to the instrument, the Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the British Overseas Territories except Gibraltar. The explanatory material states that no full impact assessment has been prepared because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. Read as a whole, the instrument does not redesign the service complaints regime. It updates terminology, adds one further excluded complaint and preserves continuity for ongoing cases, with the revised rules taking effect on 3 November 2026.