Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of lifting the proposed £50 million cap on reparations for LGBT+ veterans.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Defence is committed to welcoming back LGBT veterans into the Armed Forces community, where they have always belonged. All 49 recommendations made in Lord Etherton’s report have been accepted and to date, 38 of the recommendations have already been implemented, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to supporting our veterans and the LGBT+ community.
Lord Etherton’s report demonstrated the broad range of ways that LGBT+ personnel were impacted by the ban. The financial recognition scheme has been designed with this in mind, intending to provide a sense of closure to all those affected. Defence has worked with experts across Government to design an appropriate scheme where applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, enabling appropriate distribution of the available funds. The Minister for Veterans and People has met Lord Etherton and LGBT Veterans and he plans to provide a further update on the financial recognition scheme before the end of the year.