Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Johnny Mercer

Thursday 7th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs (Johnny Mercer)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his very important question. Alongside a lot of the support mechanisms we have introduced—Operation Fortitude, Operation Courage, Operation Restore and Operation Nova—we have a series of missions or sector initiatives for accelerating veterans who have come out of the military with specialist skills into a job and making sure those skills are not going to waste. Having a job remains the No. 1 factor in improving the life chances of veterans. Veteran employment is at 87%—it has never been higher—but there is more to do, and I look forward to working with my hon. Friend in the months ahead.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I call the SNP spokesperson.

All-party Parliamentary Groups

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Johnny Mercer

Wednesday 19th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs (Johnny Mercer)]

I beg to move,

That this House approves the Eighth Report of the Committee on Standards, Session 2022-23, HC 228, on All-Party Parliamentary Groups: final proposals and, with effect from 16 October, the Rules for All-Party Parliamentary Groups contained in the Annex of that Report, subject to any transitional arrangements agreed by the Committee on Standards.

I think I heard the hon. Member for Rhondda (Sir Chris Bryant) shout “Really?” from a sedentary position, at the thought that I am here for this debate, but he must understand that I have had a deep and long interest in all-party parliamentary groups.

APPGs play a valuable role in our parliamentary system. They bring together parliamentarians and external experts to further cross-party consideration of important issues. It is paramount that any new rules do not deter APPGs, particularly those that are self-funded, from meeting, because these forums aid the development of public policy on matters that otherwise may not be considered by Parliament. Rather, the new rules should seek to increase transparency, limit undue influence and secure the parliamentary estate, while allowing APPGs to perform their vital functions.

The Government are grateful to the Standards Committee for reviewing the rules governing these groups to ensure that they remain fit for purpose. It is right that we give existing APPGs an opportunity to comply with the new system, so I am grateful to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for outlining the need for transitional arrangements to implement the rules.

APPGs are able to play an important role in Parliament by virtue of their informal status, but I believe these groups should be held to high standards and operate in keeping with the broader principles shared across the Houses, which are that Parliament should be transparent, protected from undue influence, and boast a reputation that is cherished at home and envied abroad. The reforms being proposed represent an important step towards this objective, and as per the Government’s response in June, we welcome the Committee’s consideration of whether the rules on foreign contributions could be strengthened at a later stage. I look forward to this debate, and I commend the motion to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the shadow Leader of the House.

Armed Forces Bill

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Johnny Mercer

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Monday 8th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

Not at this time.

By cementing the covenant in the minds of the public, we are not lowering the ceiling but are raising the floor of our collective expectations. For example, my own constituency of Plymouth, Moor View has undertaken many good initiatives to support the local service community. I want others to view their efforts not as exceptional, but rather as a new normal, just as I want my constituents to see their successes merely as a springboard to better and bigger things.

In conclusion, I began by saying that an Armed Forces Bill is always an historic moment, but, by augmenting service justice, by improving our service police and by finally enshrining the covenant into law a decade on, we are cementing its standing further still. Our armed forces people are our nation’s first and last line of defence. We depend on them, but they also depend on us, and that is why it is incumbent not just on those of us in Government but on everyone in this House to work in partnership with our counterparts in the devolved Administrations to ensure that this nation does right by those who serve, so that decades from now our future personnel will look back on this period and say, “This was the moment”—the moment when our nation finally awoke and delivered on its promise to the incredible men and women who serve our country without question or quibble and defend this proud nation and act on the will of this House; the moment when incremental strategic and irreversible change was delivered in law for our service personnel and veterans and their families. I commend this Bill to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Before I call the shadow Secretary of State, it will be obvious to anyone who has examined the call list that a very large number of Members wish to participate this afternoon, so there will be an immediate time limit on Back-Bench speeches of four minutes.

Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Johnny Mercer

Report stage & 3rd reading & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Tuesday 3rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

I just wish to intervene briefly. It is a litany of accusations and they are complete rubbish. Where have I ever said that I wanted to stop investigations in this Bill? That is what I would like the right hon. Gentleman to indicate to me.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. That is a perfectly reasonable question, but, although it is not exactly unparliamentary language, perhaps the Minister, speaking as he does with dignity from the Front Bench, might use a different phrase than “complete rubbish”—just something a little bit different.

Overseas Operations (Service Personnel And Veterans) Bill

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Johnny Mercer

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Wednesday 23rd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

I have a lot of time for the hon. Gentleman and recognise his allegations of how I have ridiculed some of the approaches. The reality is that we on the Government Benches have to deal in what is actually in the Bill and the reality of operations. We have a duty to these people. We have engaged both the hon. Gentleman and the shadow Secretary of State in trying to improve the Bill, and not once have you come forward with something with which I can improve the Bill. The Bill is moderate, fair and down the middle. If you are on the wrong side in the Lobbies tonight, you are clearly on the wrong side of history.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I am not entering into the debate, but I shall merely say that all day today Members on both sides of the House have been using the word “you”. They have been calling the Prime Minister you and they are calling Members on each side of the House you. In this Chamber, you means the occupant of the Chair. It is really important, in order to keep the right sort of distance in an argument of this kind, that we use the phrase “the hon. Gentleman” or “the hon. Lady”, or something along those lines. Mr McDonald, you have not committed this sin.

Mental Health (Armed Forces Veterans)

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Johnny Mercer

Wednesday 14th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer (Plymouth, Moor View) (Con)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I was going to share the time with the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Dr Cameron).

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

In order to do so, the hon. Gentleman must have the permission of the person whose debate it is, the Minister and the occupant of the Chair. He clearly has the agreement of the Minister and of Dr Cameron. He has my agreement, too.

[Johnny Mercer]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I apologise—I spoke to Mr Speaker before you took the Chair.

I thank the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow for giving me a few minutes of her allocated time, and offer my sincere thanks to her for bringing what the Prime Minister rightly described today as “this very important issue” before the House. He correctly identified the strategic defence and security review as an opportunity to get our approach right in the future, and I fully support him in that intention.

The subject before us this evening refers to that great stain on this nation of ours, which I mentioned when I first spoke in this House. I regret to say that, aside from some excellent individual practice and charitable work, the way we look after our veterans’ mental health in this country remains poor. Many of our young men and women, who by good training and fortune walked away from battle without any physical scars, have been stricken in later years by an underlying sickness that can tear at the very core of the strongest and most enduring individual. I speak as a Conservative Member of Parliament. I work hard to support all the efforts of Government to produce and implement the exciting and progressive agenda so clearly laid out by the Prime Minister a week ago, but on this issue, while it remains in its current state, I am afraid I will not be silenced.

I have no personal agenda to drive here. I have never had the misfortune to need to use one of our tremendous military charities. I will forever be the soldiers’ voice in this debate, crafted from much time spent on operations with our young men and women, and now in my privileged position as a Member of this House and attracting a great deal of correspondence on this issue it is incumbent upon me to speak out and I will do so. I feel embarrassed at my fellow man sometimes as we stand here again tonight in 2015 in the seat of the world’s most advanced democracy and talk yet again about the stigma of mental health.

The stigma results from a basic lack of education and understanding about a human condition that affects one in four of us—a condition as medically valid as a broken leg or a fractured arm, but because it occurs in our heads, its treatment has historically been subjected to unacceptable social, political and financial disadvantage. That stigma ends in this Parliament, and I will not rest until it has.