Armed Forces Commissioner Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 3

On 3 June 2025, MPs voted by 315 ayes to 184 noes to reject Lords Amendment 3 to the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill. The amendment, proposed in the House of Lords by Baroness Goldie, would have given the new Armed Forces Commissioner an explicit statutory whistleblowing function, including protections for service personnel who raise concerns about wrongdoing. The government motion to disagree with the Lords passed, and the government simultaneously proposed its own amendment in lieu, aimed at protecting the anonymity of complainants rather than naming the function "whistleblowing". The vote determines whether the Armed Forces Commissioner, a new independent office replacing the Service Complaints Ombudsman, will carry an explicit whistleblowing remit with that specific statutory label and its associated protections. The government argued that its own amendment in lieu achieves the same protective purpose by safeguarding complainant anonymity, and that the term "whistleblowing" introduces legal ambiguity. Opponents contended that a named, statutory whistleblowing function provides clearer and stronger protection for personnel who might otherwise fear exposing wrongdoing, particularly those in the most vulnerable positions within the chain of command. The division was sharply drawn along party lines. All 315 ayes came from Labour and Labour and Co-operative Party MPs. Every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Reform UK, Democratic Unionist Party, Scottish National Party, Green, and Plaid Cymru MP who voted did so against the government, totalling 184 noes. There were no notable cross-party rebels on either side. The vote was one of two related divisions on the same day; a companion vote rejecting Lords Amendment 2 passed 319 to 180, and the government's own amendment in lieu passed 329 to 101. The Bill subsequently returned to the Lords, where a further ping-pong (the back-and-forth process of amendments between the two chambers) division on 2 July 2025 saw the Commons insist on its position by 321 to 158.