Support for UK Armed Forces and Veterans

Liam Fox Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Donaldson]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that comment.

I would like to make another point that has been raised before in the House and is the subject of early-day motion 484: the question of the rank that a soldier holds at the time of his death and the impact on the pension paid to his family and surviving spouse. There is a rule that pensions on promotion are payable only after a new rank has been held for a year, which means that the families of some of our armed forces personnel who have been killed on active service have received a pension below the level that is consistent with the rank held at the time of death. I am thinking, in particular, of the case of Sergeant Matthew Telford from Grimsby, who was promoted to the rank of sergeant in June 2009 and killed that November. His family were paid a pension below the level that would have been payable to that rank.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Liam Fox)]

In such cases, we have instructed that compensation should be paid to increase the pension to the same financial level. The Government intend to change the law so that in future it will be much clearer that pensions should be paid at the level of the acting rank at the time any member of the armed forces is unfortunately killed. I think that that is what the country would expect us to do in order to be fair.

[Mr Donaldson]

I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s comments and the fact that the Government are committed to dealing with the problem, in the short term through the payment of compensation and in the longer term by changing legislation. That will be widely welcomed within the armed forces community.

I want to mention briefly the pensions payable to Gurkhas. The Secretary of State will be aware of the campaign that the Gurkhas have been pursuing on the level of pension they are paid. I recently met some of their representatives, who told me that there are 10,000 former Gurkhas in Nepal living in poverty—their figures, not mine—and that although those Gurkhas who live in the UK qualify for pension credit, that costs more than would a proper pension. If we are subsidising their pensions with pension credit, why not just pay them an equal pension? I hope that the Secretary of State and his colleagues will look at that. The Gurkhas have made an enormous and valiant contribution to our armed forced over the years. I know that improvements have been made in the level of welfare and support that they receive, but I hope that the Government will seek to address this issue.

I welcome the opportunity to have this debate. We stand ready to support the Government in taking forward the military covenant and want to see them honour all the commitments they have made. I look forward to hearing what the Secretary of State has to say.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Liam Fox)]

The Government support the terms of the motion on the Order Paper and will support it in the Lobby if necessary, which should give some comfort to my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash). The debate gives us another opportunity to express our support for those who have given, and continue to give, so much to this nation in service and sacrifice.

I would like to pay tribute to Lance Corporal Liam Tasker from 104 Military Working Dog Support Unit, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, who was killed in action on Tuesday 1 March while on patrol attached to 1st Battalion the Irish Guards. He and his working dog, Theo, who also died, undoubtedly saved the lives of many—military and civilian—by their tireless efforts to find improvised explosive devices.

As the motion has been tabled by the Democratic Unionist party, I also want to pay particular tribute to those men and women from the Province who have served their country around the world with great distinction. As we hold this debate, the Royal Irish are making an enormous contribution to our efforts in Afghanistan, and paying a high price.

The men and women of our armed forces are volunteers. That is what makes their bravery and selfless service so special. They choose to serve, but they do not choose where that service will take them. Whether in Afghanistan, north Africa, as in recent days, or on other current operations around the world, they apply their considerable skills in the national interest to keep the citizens of this country safe. They do not serve for an easy life; they risk life and limb on our behalf, and they sacrifice some of the freedoms that many of us take for granted.

Their families also play a vital role in supporting their loved ones and must deal with some of the hardships of service life. The whole nation, not just the Government, has a moral obligation to those who serve in our armed forces, past and present, and their families. We owe them our gratitude and respect. But we owe them more than kind words; we owe it to them to make sure that they are treated fairly and receive the support they need.

There is no doubt about the general desire in this country to improve and develop the military covenant, the timeless bond between the whole nation and the armed forces. It encompasses those of all ages and social groups in all parts of the UK, those with different politics and those with none at all. On behalf of the Government, we placed at the heart of our programme for government our commitment to rebuild the military covenant. For the first time, a tri-service armed forces covenant is being drafted after wide consultation and is being recognised as existing in the law of the land. We are taking steps to ensure that we will make a real difference to the lives of serving personnel, their families and veterans by putting in place the practical help, which is how that covenant will be judged. In the nine months that we have been in office, we are well on the way to delivering on our commitment, and I will set out some of that progress today.

But let me also be clear about the challenge we face, because we must be balanced and realistic in our aspirations. In the difficult economic circumstances that the coalition inherited, with all parts of society having to make sacrifices, repairing the covenant will not be easy or straightforward. The previous Government left us not only a record national debt that is increasing day in, day out because of the deficit, but a hole in the defence budget itself. However, because of the priority we place on security, the defence budget is making a more modest contribution to deficit reduction than almost all other Departments.

We have still had to take difficult decisions in the comprehensive spending review and the strategic defence and security review that will have repercussions for some members of the armed forces and their families. These include, for instance, decisions on pay and allowances and, as we discussed in the House yesterday, the decisions to reduce the size of the armed forces establishment. I regret that we have had to take some of these measures, just as I regret the need to cut the defence budget as a whole and some of the measures that we are having to take across Government to pull the nation back from the brink of bankruptcy.

The previous Government’s disastrous economic legacy means that there is simply not the money and flexibility to do all that we would like to do as quickly as we would like to do it, but where we can act early to repair the covenant we are doing so. In our nine months in office we have already made great strides in improving the conditions for those who serve on the front line. One of the first actions taken by the new Government was the doubling of the operational allowance that had been paid under the previous Government to over £5,000 for a typical six-month tour. We have changed the rules on rest and recuperation so that any days of leave lost due to delays in the air bridge or any other operational requirements will be added to post-tour leave.

We will provide university and further education scholarships, from the academic year that began in September 2010, to the children of members of the armed forces who have been killed since 1990. We have included 36,000 service children as part of the pupil premium, recognising the uniqueness of service life and its effect on service children and service communities. Because the unseen mental wounds of war have too often gone undiagnosed and untreated, and because the pace and nature of operations over the last decade mean that more could be suffering in silence, we have made mental health care a key priority. We have committed an extra £20 million in the SDSR for health care and are pressing ahead with implementing the recommendations made by my hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison).

The Department of Health is commissioning 30 whole-time equivalent veterans mental health professionals to deliver improved NHS mental health services to veterans, including introducing structured mental health surveillance inquiries to routine service medical examinations and to all discharge medicals. They will work under the direction of the armed forces networks and forge links with health and other statutory agencies and with the voluntary sector.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

On the subject of those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with emotional problems and trauma, it is all very well to have a system in place, but is there a monitoring system so that someone can follow up on a person who is at home on their own and who sometimes faces all that trauma and horror on their own?

[Dr Fox]

Indeed. As I say, those professionals will work under the direction of the armed forces networks and forge links with health and other statutory agencies and with the voluntary sector. I was going on to say that they will also undertake outreach work to identify cases and refer individuals to veterans organisations and to other professionals. In addition, a new 24-hour veterans mental health helpline is now being switched on and will be formally launched later this month.

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct, because the safety net will not be of full value unless people know how to access it. That means advertising what is available, ensuring that there are joined-up networks throughout government and that, at the point of discharge from the armed forces and later on through outreach work, we are able to look at those who are most at risk.

The previous Government and the American Government have done a great deal of work on how to identify individuals who are at risk, and that is an ongoing scientific project. Western Governments in general are trying to grasp the issue to see whether they can clearly find those who might be at higher risk and put in place additional checks to follow them through the system. As that information becomes available, the Government will take it forward.

[Andrew Percy]

I thank the Secretary of State for his comments, and for his action on mental health support. Organisations such as the one I mentioned, the national Gulf Veterans and families association, which is based in east Yorkshire, will welcome that news, but will he confirm what I think he is saying, which is that that service will be provided not just for recent veterans but for veterans of older conflicts, and that the Department will work as hard as possible to identify such people, many of whom are difficult to identify?

[Dr Fox]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and that is the exact aim behind what the Government are doing. As more evidence comes to light about how we can follow up on people who might be at higher risk, we might stop people falling through the net that is meant to be there to protect them. When we look at the issues of homelessness, the prison population and so on, we need to ensure that we make available the appropriate care at the time that it is needed in the cycle, so that we can obtain the best outcomes for service veterans.

[Mr David Hamilton]

I agree wholeheartedly that the after-care service needs to be upped; that is important. The health service in Scotland is devolved, however, so will the right hon. Gentleman take care to ensure that there is no disconnect between the MOD, the devolved Parliaments and the health service?

[Dr Fox]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. The armed forces represent the whole United Kingdom, and it would be a dereliction of duty if we did not ensure that the same service were available throughout the United Kingdom. It is therefore incumbent on the devolved Administrations to work with the Government to ensure that those mechanisms are put in place. My colleagues and I will certainly take opportunities to talk to the devolved Governments, as we do, and on that issue we will want to be as close to uniformity as possible, given of course their freedoms to put different mechanisms in place. He makes a very good point, however, and I shall ensure that I reinforce it when I next meet the devolved bodies.

As I said, we are about to launch formally the new 24-hour veterans mental health helpline, which will be operated by the Rethink charity on behalf of Combat Stress and funded by the Department of Health. We believe that it will help to tackle one of the most difficult aspects of mental health care by creating an environment where those who fear that they are suffering from mental problems can get in touch with someone who understands not only the problems themselves, but the stigma that some veterans still feel is attached to coming forward. This goes back to the point that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made. We have to ensure that there are services, and that those who need them are willing and able to access them, because that is what ultimately determines the outcome. Such initiatives show how we are working effectively with other agencies—whether Government or charities—to provide the services that people need.

The role of service personnel families is not always so visible, but it too is crucial to our defence effort. Service families bear a lot of the pressure. From the five years that I worked as a doctor with service families, I know the pressure that they can be under, and it is often invisible to those outside the armed forces. They share the burden of frequent moves, sometimes at short notice, with disruption to careers and to children’s education. They often share the experience of service accommodation, and when their loved one is away on operational service, sometimes in dangerous circumstances, they in particular deserve our understanding and support, given their vital role in ensuring that our operations are a success.

[Bob Russell]

Families not only need our understanding and support, but decent houses in which to live. Does the Secretary of State agree that the quality of some family housing is not acceptable, and that it is one area in which the Government have to find the money? If we are to send soldiers to put their lives on the line in Afghanistan, the least we can do is ensure that their families back home have decent accommodation.

[Dr Fox]

My hon. Friend makes a useful point, which I shall come to in a moment.

The wide range of welfare support for families is being expanded. As set out in the defence and security review, the Ministry of Defence is starting work on developing options for a new employment model. Its aim is to provide an overall package, including career structure, pay, allowances and accommodation policies, that offers greater domestic stability, helping spouses to pursue their own careers and supporting children’s education, while still allowing for mobility when it is essential to defence requirements.

We would dearly like to do more, for example on improving service family accommodation, which my hon. Friend mentions and we know to be one of the greatest concerns to service families. About £61.6 million has been allocated in the current financial year for the upgrade of, and the improvement programmes for, service accommodation. That will include upgrading some 800 service family homes to the top standard, with a further 4,000 properties benefiting from other improvements such as new kitchens, bathrooms, double glazing and so on.

It would be dishonest of me, however, if I were not to say that we must recognise that we cannot go as far or as fast as we would like to, given the economic situation that we have inherited, but we can and will do what we can, when we can.

[Ian Paisley]

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way on the important issue of housing. On a related issue, service personnel ultimately could be made redundant and return to the private sector, putting pressure on the private sector housing market. People might then want to get on to the Housing Executive’s list in Northern Ireland. Could some effort be made to ensure that former Army personnel are entitled to additional points, so that they can obtain public housing? It is crucial to ensure that our military personnel are not turned down or moved down the list when they should be entitled to public housing.

[Dr Fox]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very compelling point, with which I have some strong personal sympathy. I shall take the issue back and have it looked at on a cross-government basis to see whether it is indeed possible to make the general change that he mentions. If there is a specific problem relating to Northern Ireland, I am very willing to talk to Members about it to see whether there needs to be anything specific to Northern Ireland in any changes that might be made. He makes a good, valid and reasonable point that will probably get fairly widespread support across the country as a whole.

Another part of the UK’s defence capability, and thus the armed forces community, is our reserve forces. The Ministry of Defence is responsible for ensuring that reservists are treated fairly and with respect, and that they are valued. In the drafting of the armed forces covenant, reserves have been considered equally alongside regulars. That will set the tone for Government policy aimed at improving the support available for serving and former members of the armed forces, and the families who carry so much of the burden, especially, as we remember today, in the event of injury or death.

Rebuilding the military covenant is not just a matter for the Ministry of Defence. Supporting the men and women of our armed forces, during and after their service, is very much the business of the whole Government—and indeed, as my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) said, of the whole of our society. The measures that I have described show how my colleagues the Secretaries of State for Health, for Education and for Business, Innovation and Skills—to name but three—are fully engaged in this wider endeavour. The devolved Administrations, local authorities, and even individual GPs all have an important role to play. The public sector does not do all the work; the service and ex-service charities are, rightly, also part of that network of support that the former service person has a right to expect.

We need to ensure that progress is made year on year. That is why we have brought forward measures in the Armed Forces Bill requiring the Defence Secretary to present an armed forces covenant report to Parliament every year. I hope to deliver the first of those reports in the autumn. It will not simply be about the relationship between the Government and the armed forces but, as I have set out, a wider picture of how the covenant is being respected across the whole of our society, including, as has been pointed out in this debate already, the charitable sector, which has a role to play. The right hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Mr Donaldson) asked about that specific element. We have decided that a tri-service covenant should be developed along with the armed forces, the charitable sector and interested parties, including veterans, and that the Secretary of State will be answerable for how that is put into practice.

There is a genuine debate to be had about other ways of doing this, and it is fair that we consider those today. Some believe that we should have definable rights, enshrined in law; if so, they should make that clear. However, when rights are defined in law, they become justiciable. There are potentially complex and expensive legal implications for that, right up to interpretations by the European Court; Members would not expect me to go into private grief on that particular subject. If one were to apply rights in law, one would need to consider, given that the military covenant is not delivered only by Government, the implications for the charitable sector in terms of its legal obligations for delivery.

It is a complex argument, and there are perfectly reasonable points of view to be expressed on either side. The Government have decided that the best way to ensure that this is recognised in law is to develop the tri-service covenant and for the Secretary of State to make a statement so that Parliament as a whole can assess how it is being delivered. Ultimately, although we in this House will have a lot of debate about process, what matters is outcome and whether service personnel and veterans are getting an improvement in what society as a whole has promised to deliver, and wants to deliver, to them.

I welcome the support in this House for members of the armed forces community. That is why the Government support this motion, just as I hope the House supports the positive measures we are taking. The coalition Government will continue to rebuild the armed forces covenant. I wish we could go faster, but we will go as fast as we can.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jones]

I believe the Confederation of British Service and Ex-service Organisations is working with the Veterans Minister to consider how we can get better co-ordination between those charities, which will be very important, especially when the clientele of some of the smaller charities pass away over the next few years. I am thinking, for example, of the Association of Wrens, which I believe has an end-date by which it will wind itself up and merge with other naval service charities. I put on record again my thanks to the individuals involved in such charities.

The right hon. Member for Lagan Valley mentioned the covenant, which it is important to consider. The previous Government were quite clear in our Command Paper about where our work on that would go next, and the Green Paper that I produced in 2008 considered ways of embedding in law the covenant and other matters covered in the Command Paper. I am sad that the Government are not following through on that work, and I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that the Prime Minister’s commitment on the deck of the Ark Royal is in sharp contrast with what has happened in practice.

The opportunity provided by the Armed Forces Bill is being missed, because the covenant is not being enshrined in law. Members have mentioned the Royal British Legion, which clearly feels let down. It saddened me that when I tabled an amendment to the Bill in Committee a few weeks ago, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voted against it. That was a missed opportunity, and we need to revisit the matter.

[Dr Fox]

rose—

[Mr Jones]

If the Secretary of State is rethinking the matter, I will very much welcome it.

[Dr Fox]

This has been a very open debate so far. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman can explain to me whether, in his eyes, putting the military covenant into law means creating specific, definable rights for certain members of society. Will he give us an example of what sort of rights those might be, and what legal advice the Opposition have been given about the justiciability of such rights?

[Mr Jones]

If the Secretary of State has looked at our Green Paper, he will have seen what I was proposing. I agree that we should not create a feast for lawyers, but we wanted to ensure, for example, priority access in the health service, which we believed could be legally enforceable. My recent amendment suggested that the local government ombudsman should be responsible, as was suggested in the Green Paper. I accept that there is resistance to that, not from the Ministry of Defence but from other Departments. However, people ask whether veterans should get special treatment, and, in my opinion, they should.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con)]

I want to talk about what the military covenant really means. Obviously, it is a contract between the state and individuals who put on uniform in its service, but what does the state require of our servicemen and women? Let us be quite clear. When required, the state directs those who are in the armed forces to obey orders and advance against the enemy, even when there is a high chance of their being killed. They are not allowed to debate the matter, and they are under compulsion. If they refuse, they may be court-martialled—in the past, they may even have been shot or ended up on a gibbet.

May I remind hon. Members of my hero, Wing Commander Guy Gibson? On the night of 16 May 1943, 19 specially modified Lancasters from 617 Squadron, led by Guy Gibson, attacked the three dams in the Ruhr on Operation Chastise. They did so from 60 feet, at 220 mph, in darkness and against considerable Nazi opposition. Of those 19 Lancasters, eight were lost, and 56 RAF personnel were killed. Along with Gibson, who won the Victoria cross, 32 airmen received decorations.

Not one of those 56 men wanted to die, and I suspect that very few—if any—wanted to get into the aircraft that night in May 1943. Any man or woman who has been in combat would be the very last person to say that they were not frightened sick when it happened, but the state required Guy Gibson and his gallant men to overcome their natural instincts, move their feet, which must have felt like lead, and get into those aircraft and fly. They knew that their chances of survival were not great—42% of them lost their lives—but they did what was required by the state.

My old battalion, 1st Battalion the Cheshire Regiment, which is now called 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment, returned from Afghanistan last autumn. Its casualty rate was pretty horrific: 12 dead and nearly 100 wounded, and seven triple amputees now have two legs between them. In the front sections of an infantry battalion in Afghanistan, the chances of being killed or wounded are 25% to 30%—I am talking about the people who do the business of our military in Afghanistan at the front.

The right hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Mr Donaldson) might not be allowed technically to be my friend in this Chamber, but he is certainly my friend when we are outside. He reminded the House of the Ballykelly bomb on 6 December 1982, when I was a company commander, but may I remind the House that 35 soldiers under my command were wounded, as well as civilians? They too remain our responsibility—I feel that acutely.

[Dr Fox]

Like all right hon. and hon. Members, I am extremely impressed and moved by what my hon. Friend is saying. However, it is not the state alone—meaning the governors of the state—that required sacrifices either in the second world war or in Afghanistan; it is the people of the United Kingdom as a whole. That is why the military covenant exists not only between the state and the armed forces, but between the whole nation and the armed forces.

[Bob Stewart]

I certainly accept my right hon. Friend’s endorsement. Our nation requires our armed forces to do things that they would not normally do as civilians.

Sometimes, our front-line soldiers in Afghanistan chuck up as they load their weapons. I understand that, having been semi-paralysed with fear myself on occasions, and most certainly on front lines in Bosnia. I suspect that that feeling of paralysis and hopelessness was also felt by the dambuster squadron as they climbed into their Lancasters. However, that is the nation’s requirement of our servicemen and servicewomen. To me, it is pretty stark—it is the ultimate uncompromising requirement—but what should our service personnel get back? The state has always had a clear duty to look after service personnel or personnel who are killed or wounded in its service. That duty may not have been fulfilled in the past, and sometimes, even if it was, it was not done very well, but the requirement has always existed.

Early formal recognition of that duty was the establishment by Charles II of the Royal hospital in Chelsea in 1681. Today, we think of Chelsea pensioners as magnificent old soldiers in red coats—the boys of the old brigade—but that hospital was established specifically to look after wounded soldiers regardless of their age. By March 1692, the 476 so-called in-pensioners were mainly the wounded, not necessarily the old. The state—or the nation, if the Secretary of State will forgive me—has recognised its side of the bargain for a long time, which obviously continues to this day.

The military covenant is now widely recognised as a term that refers to the mutual obligation between the people—I am being careful now—and its armed forces. It was possibly first officially coined in an MOD pamphlet entitled, “Soldiering: the Military Covenant”, which I first saw in April 2000.

The covenant covers a lot of ground, some of which we have debated today, but in essence it fundamentally means that service personnel should be treated fairly and properly. I want to concentrate on what happens if a serviceman or servicewoman is killed or hurt, rather than on the softer aspects of the covenant. I know I speak for the House when I say that we want nothing but the best for those personnel, but let me emphasise what I consider to be our nation’s duty to those who are killed or wounded in its service.

First, on those who make the ultimate sacrifice, the mortal remains of our service personnel who are killed must be treated with the greatest dignity and respect, which I think they are. Our system is now fully supportive of grieving relatives, which includes helping, if required, with funerals as sensitively as possible.

We are also getting better at looking after families when the funeral is over. Service widows and families must have proper financial provision and guidance for as long as they need it thereafter. That also extends to the children. I am very pleased that the Secretary of State has emphasised the setting up of an educational scheme and the attempt to look carefully at how families are looked after, but we have to keep on top of this, because as time goes by we tend to forget.

Secondly, I want to talk about the wounded. The ratio of killed to wounded on service in Afghanistan—this is based on my old battalion—was about one dead to nearly 10 wounded. I am told that the Americans’ figure is higher. That is an incredible improvement since the days when I first put on the uniform in 1967. When I was at the Royal Military Academy, I was taught that when planning a military operation, we should expect about one person to be killed for every three wounded—survival rates were not great. That was the case right the way through the early years in Northern Ireland, but now we have a much better survival rate. The ratio of dead to wounded now is—let us not be exact—one in 10 or 11. The precise figure does not matter; what matters is that we are recovering people from near-death experiences and getting them off the battlefield properly.

Tremendous advances have been made in keeping our wounded alive. That was a great achievement of the previous Government, some of whose members who helped to engineer it are here. We can blame the previous Government for many things, but on the medical front I take my hat off to them. The way in which we deal with our casualties is terribly important. It is also important when they take their uniforms off. That is something else we have to keep an eye on—they have to be looked after for the rest of their lives.

I am especially interested in the long-term care of the disabled. I accept that the NHS has responsibility and does its best, but that system still requires attention and help. I understand and accept now—with some emotional reluctance, I have to say—that the days of exclusive service hospitals are over. Our war disabled require the very best care until the end of their days, and I, for one, will spend all my time in the House doing my best to improve the long-term care of our wounded.

I will stop there. I am very grateful to the House authorities and the Democratic Unionist party for continuing to bring the matter of the military covenant before the House. It is a matter very dear to my heart. However, looking around the Chamber, I can see that I am certainly not alone; I know that there is tremendous support for it on both sides. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak.