Oral Answers to Questions

Navendu Mishra Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Chris Elmore (Ogmore) (Lab)]

What support his Department is providing for veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Navendu Mishra (Stockport) (Lab)]

What support his Department is providing for veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

What support his Department is providing for veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.

--- Later in debate ---

[Johnny Mercer]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to focus on the output from these charities and what that care looks like from the veterans’ point of view. My determining concern is that, where these services are, regrettably, unable to continue, that service is still provided and that veterans can access them across the country. I have worked hard with officials in the Treasury to get money into the sector. There is no doubt that the veterans’ charity and care sectors are going through an accelerated process of reform as a result of covid-19, but I am determined to take the opportunities from that, making sure that we fulfil the Government’s ambition to make this the best country in the world in which to be an armed forces veteran.

[Navendu Mishra]

The Minister said that the veterans’ gateway app would put veterans’ care in the palm of every veteran in the country. Can he tell us how many people have downloaded and used this app in its first two months?

[Johnny Mercer]

I have not formally launched the veterans’ gateway app at the moment. We are going through a process of working with users and so on to make it more user-friendly. That is an ambition of mine: to put veterans’ care in the palm of every single veteran in this country. We will have a formal launch and I would be delighted if the hon. Gentleman came with me to that launch. We can then look at the figures together and perhaps work on getting the app into more people’s pockets as we go.[Official Report, 13 July 2020, Vol. 678, c. 7MC.]