Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from the Secretary of State for Defence to the Chair of the War Widows' Association on 29 June, what plans they have to revisit their policy on war widows' pensions.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Officials have now developed a number of options to be considered. The full financial and legal implications of these options are being explored so that the Defence Secretary can decide how to proceed. Work on this is continuing at pace both in the Ministry of Defence and across Government.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Veterans UK Helpline has been suspended; and what assessment they have made of the impact this may have on veterans, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Veterans UK helpline has not been suspended. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, Veterans UK services are, as far as possible being delivered remotely.
Whilst the helpline is not able to handle telephony enquiries, the helpline contains recorded service information on key subject areas, and all veterans are still able to submit enquiries via email.
A written reply or call-back is made by Veterans UK staff and where welfare support is required, these are referred to the Veterans Welfare Service. More than 4,000 people have been helped in this way since 23 March 2020.
All planned Veterans Welfare Service and Defence Transition Services contact with clients is being maintained, and alternative methods are utilised rather than face to face visits, unless deemed absolutely essential.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on processing War Pension Scheme and War Widow(er) Pension applications.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
All of the existing 470,000 War Pensions, War Widows Pension and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments are continuing to be made as usual into nominated bank accounts, and all requests for welfare support are being met, the same day where at all possible.
With staff working remotely, it has been necessary to pause some compensation scheme administration casework on new claims, appeals and reviews. Many files, some dating back to World War II, exist only as paper records and access to office-based IT systems are needed to process this work.
Where a possibility of financial hardship is identified by the Veterans Welfare Service, a small team is in place to take action on urgent payments where the case evidence needed to do so is available.
UK Veterans staff review the situation daily in order to resume as full a level of service as possible within the current restrictions.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to make any changes to the size and location of the Royal Marine garrisons in Plymouth.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
As part of the Service's Structural Rebalancing Plan earlier this year, 200 Royal Marines positions will be reassigned to the wider Royal Navy by 2020.
As announced in November 2016, the Ministry of Defence intends to dispose of Royal Marines Stonehouse in 2023 and The Royal Citadel in 2024, and re-provide for Units from them in the Plymouth and Torpoint area. Exact locations are subject to on-going assessment. Parliament and staff within the impacted Units will be informed when a decision on reprovision has been made.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contributions of (1) HMS Albion, and (2) HMS Bulwark, to the UK’s overall amphibious capability; and whether they intend to decommission either vessel.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review stated that one of the Royal Navy's two Landing Platform Docks would in future be placed at low readiness while the other is held at very high readiness for operations. HMS ALBION and HMS BULWARK have, accordingly, alternated in the low and high readiness profile since 2010. HMS ALBION recently exited her five-year period of low readiness following a successful regeneration programme and is now undertaking operational sea training.
On current plans, the decommissioning dates for HMS ALBION and HMS BULWARK are 2033 and 2034 respectively. Speculation about the potential outcome of the National Security Capability Review is exactly that: speculation.