Oral Answers to Questions

Heather Wheeler Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to protect veterans from vexatious legal claims.

[Mrs Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to protect veterans from vexatious legal claims.

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to protect veterans from vexatious legal claims.

--- Later in debate ---

[Leo Docherty]

I am grateful for the work that my hon. Friend does in Hastings and Rye to represent the interests of veterans. It falls on us all to sing from the rooftops about this landmark Act. We will be communicating it through every channel available to us, and we will look at whether we can include it in pre-deployment training.

[Mrs Wheeler [V]]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act, which has provided huge relief to both veterans and serving personnel in my South Derbyshire constituency. Will he reassure me that, on top of improving the treatment of service personnel throughout the criminal and civil claims process, the Ministry of Defence is also improving its own internal investigations process?

[Leo Docherty]

My hon. Friend is right to raise investigations, which are a critically important component of the service justice system. It is in the interests of serving personnel that we have a rigorous and transparent system. That is why the Secretary of State has tasked Justice Richard Henriques to conduct a thorough review of our approach to investigations. We much look forward to him reporting in the autumn.