LGBT Veterans Independent Review

Debate between Andrew Murrison and Dan Carden

Wednesday 13th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dr Murrison]

Let me be absolutely clear: Defence wants people, regardless of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and social class. We just want people with talent—that is the touchstone for recruitment into the Army, Navy and Air Force right now. I do not care if people are gay; I welcome gay people serving side by side with everybody else. Our history is full of examples of the most courageous individuals who served in uniform and were gay.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

I am privileged to be an ambassador for Fighting With Pride, and I worked with the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs on this matter before he took up his role. I pay tribute to Caroline and Craig in particular, as well as all the people they have been working with.

Fighting With Pride has welcomed the pace, positive intent and completeness of this process, but the next stage is a full debate in this Chamber to which Members can contribute. I hope the Minister will listen to the representations he has heard today. Finally, I put on record my concerns about the £50 million cap and the fact that the Minister has spoken about this being a financial award scheme, not a compensation scheme. I think the Government are in the wrong place on that and that they will end up causing themselves more problems if they do not seek to compensate veterans who have lost livelihoods, careers and pensions through their mistreatment by Government.

[Dr Murrison]

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s observations. He may like to look up the Canadian scheme, which is a reasonable exemplar, although the circumstances are different. It awarded 110 million Canadian dollars, and this morning a Canadian dollar was worth 58p, but that scheme covered a much broader scope and the population of Canada is smaller than that of the UK. It covered police, the armed forces and civil servants, so the scope was much wider. Although the two are not directly comparable, the Canadian scheme does at least make us feel that we are in the right ballpark. I am afraid I cannot give the hon. Gentleman the commitment he is seeking, but I urge him to look closely at other schemes and certainly at the Canadian one, which is probably the closest comparator we have.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Murrison and Dan Carden

Monday 30th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

T7. The call for evidence for the LGBT veterans independent review revealed that the police records of veterans convicted during the ban on homosexuality were destroyed. In answer to parliamentary questions, the Department says that that was “in line with data protection”. However, in letters to veterans, it says: “This decision was taken by the Defence Police Chiefs council, who directed that all investigations into…offences relating solely to sexuality…were to be removed from our systems and deleted from the records”. Will the Secretary of State or a Minister write to me to clarify the point? Will they consider making records of meetings of the defence police chiefs council public?

[Dr Murrison]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising the matter. There is no question but that between 1967 and 2000, people in the LGBT community were badly dealt with by Defence. That is why we have set up the Etherton review, which will report shortly. Having met Lord Etherton, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that he will be forensic in his examination of the data. I think I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the handling of records, as far as we can tell, was carried out in accordance with civilian practice, but of course we will stand by and wait for his lordship to opine on the matter. We will comment further when he has done so.