The News has reported on the 1st September of likely changes being forced upon the MOD.  At present, there is a ban on women serving on submarines, despite the equality legislation that has been in place for some time, and recently augmented by the Equality Act.  The justification for the ban on female submariners has been the supposed health risks for women serving beneath the waves, but the Institute of Naval Medicine has recently concluded these risks do not apply and that the MOD is unable to justify the continued ban.

Sue Ball, Employment Lawyer  has been interviewed by The News and was quoted as saying “‘The MoD has relied on the exceptions in the equality law on health and safety grounds that serving in submarines would be damaging to women. But without the medical evidence it is going to be difficult to back that up now. Either they are going to have to remove the ban or face a challenge from someone at some point.’

You can read the full news report here