Veterans Strategy
Action Plan
(Ashfield) (Con)
2. What recent progress his Department has made on implementing
the Veterans Strategy Action Plan. (901041)
(Blackpool South) (Con)
4. What recent progress his Department has made on implementing
the Veterans Strategy Action Plan. (901043)
(Bracknell) (Con)
18. What recent progress his Department has made on implementing
the Veterans Strategy Action Plan. (901063)
The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs ()
A quarter of the more than 60 cross-Government commitments have
been delivered to date, with recent achievements including
rolling out the Great Place to Work for Veterans scheme, the
completion of the scoping study into digital verification, and
the appointment of the first Veterans Commissioner for Wales. I
will publish a formal update on progress in the autumn.
We have thousands of veterans in this country who suffer from
post-traumatic stress disorder, which can affect their ability to
hold down a relationship or hold down a job. There is a lot of
help out there, but veterans are a proud bunch and many are hard
to reach because they are too proud to reach out for help. What
more can the Government do to make sure these hard-to-reach
veterans are reached and supported?
I thank my hon. Friend for his relentless advocacy for the small
but very important cohort who struggle with life after service.
We have now established Op Courage, the UK’s first single care
pathway through NHS mental health services for those who need
them. It had 19,000 referrals in its first year last year. I
encourage people to engage with the service to talk about their
mental health and not suffer in silence. Help is there, and I say
to them, “You can get better, and the system is there to look
after you.”
I wholeheartedly welcome the Government’s ambition to make the UK
the best place in the world to be a veteran. To achieve that, we
must prioritise supporting veterans with their mental health.
Will my hon. Friend set out how the new digital identification
service will contribute towards that?
The digital verification service is an extremely important part
of being able to identify the veterans cohort, of which no
Government have ever really had a true understanding. We are
making significant progress. I recognise that individuals want a
veterans ID card, which will be a result of it. Alpha testing is
going on now and we are looking to do beta testing next year. I
am hopeful we will have something online by April next year.
I have heard lots of accusations over the past few weeks that
Veterans UK is both judge and jury; in other words, it operates
as the assessor and the awarder of assistance to veterans. Are
there any plans to review Veterans UK or to conduct an
inquiry?
First, I pay tribute to the staff of Veterans UK, who work
incredibly hard in a very under- invested system that is still
working off paper records. The Government have committed to a £44
million spend to turn it into a digital service, which will
undoubtedly increase and improve its output. I share my hon.
Friend’s concern, certainly about the data on how many appeals
have been overturned. I understand the processes for it, but my
very clear view is that the service is not good enough for our
veterans at the moment. I will bring forward plans for how we can
improve it in due course.
(Huddersfield)
(Lab/Co-op)
Just how long have this Government been in power, and how many
more suicides of veterans will take place before we see firm
action to follow through on mental health and get these men the
real support that they want? I am the son of a veteran. I know
what it is like for someone to finish service, having had
traumatic experiences fighting for their country.
The topic of veteran suicides is incredibly serious. The data
shows that someone is statistically less likely to take their
life if they have served, but every suicide is a tragedy for the
individual, the family and the nation that they serve. There is
more help available now than there ever has been. Yes, we did
start from a pretty low base, but the system is working, with
19,000 referrals through Op Courage last year. The help is
available, and I urge all those who suffer in silence to
understand that the situation has changed. We will continue to
make progress until we have the world-class veteran care that
veterans deserve.
(Rutherglen and Hamilton
West) (Ind)
What progress have Ministers made on giving further statutory
standing to the veterans covenant?
This is the first Government to have brought in—through the Armed
Forces Act 2021—a statutory requirement on health, housing and
education. I am clear that that is a floor, not a ceiling. We are
looking to expand what that legislation can do at some point.
This is all about making sure that veterans are not
disadvantaged, which was the whole point of the armed forces
covenant. We will see how the legislation goes—it is the first
time that this has been done anywhere in the world—and how it
plays out in communities, and we will make sure that it delivers
for those who need it. We are always prepared to look at doing
more to ensure that veterans are not disadvantaged by their
service.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I welcome the hon. Gentleman back to his place and look forward
to his contribution as a Minister on veterans issues. On funding
for privately operated rehabilitation facilities, will he confirm
his intention to make sustained grant funding available to
charities such as SSAFA and Beyond the Battlefield—one of the
charities in my Strangford constituency—which provide services
that the Government seem unable to provide for veterans they seem
unable to reach?
The beauty of Op Courage is that it does precisely that: it
brings order to the various charities and enables them to bid in
to run contracts, so that they can run the complex treatment
service, the high intensity service and the transition liaison
service. It gets them on a sustainable footing and away from
year-to-year funding, providing certainty not only for those who
do the brilliant work in the charities sector, but for those who
need it, so that there is some permanence to the system and
veterans can rely on that help.
