We determine the radial abundance gradient of Cl in the Milky Way from H ii regions spectra .
For the first time , the Cl/H ratios are computed by simply adding ionic abundances and not using an ionization correction factor ( ICF ) .
We use a collection of published very deep spectra of Galactic H ii regions .
We have re-calculated the physical conditions , ionic and total abundances of Cl and O using the same methodology and updated atomic data for all the objects .
We find that the slopes of the radial gradients of Cl and O are identical within the uncertainties : - 0.043 dex kpc ^ { -1 } .
This is consistent with a lockstep evolution of both elements .
We obtain that the mean value of the Cl/O ratio across the Galactic disc is log ( Cl/O ) = - 3.42 \pm 0.06 .
We compare our Cl/H ratios with those determined from { Cl ^ { 2 + } } abundances and using some available ICF schemes of the literature .
We find that our total Cl abundances are always lower than the values determined using ICF s , indicating that those correction schemes systematically overestimate the contribution of { Cl ^ { + } } and { Cl ^ { 3 + } } species to the total Cl abundance .
Finally , we propose an empirical ICF ( { Cl ^ { 2 + } } ) to estimate the Cl/H ratio in H ii regions .