Richard Baker
Main Page: Richard Baker (Labour - Glenrothes and Mid Fife)Department Debates - View all Richard Baker's debates with the Ministry of Defence
Royal British Legion
Richard Baker Excerpts(3 days ago)
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Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I, too, begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) on securing this important debate. Representing a Scottish constituency, I will focus my remarks on the work of Poppyscotland, which is vital for 4,000 veterans living in Glenrothes and Mid Fife. The sizeable veterans community in Fife is testament to the strong and proud connections that the kingdom has to the famous Black Watch regiment. Fife is home to nearly 10% of Scotland’s 175,000-strong veterans population. We know how many veterans there are in Scotland and the distinct needs of that group in our society thanks to Poppyscotland and its successful Count Them In campaign ahead of the Scottish census in 2022. That is just one example of Poppyscotland’s effective advocacy and support for the veterans community.
I was privileged to work alongside colleagues in Poppyscotland when I worked for the charity Sight Scotland Veterans, which supports veterans who are blind and partially sighted. From that experience, I learned just how invaluable the work of Poppyscotland is for our veterans. It ranges from advice services, support for veterans facing financial difficulties and advice and aids for those with mobility problems, to housing and mental health support. Poppyscotland also led the Unforgotten Forces consortium in Scotland. That brought together veterans charities, which were successfully collaborating to tackle the loneliness and isolation too often experienced by our veterans.
Every day, the Royal British Legion, Poppyscotland and so many other veterans charities throughout the United Kingdom provide fantastic support to our veterans community, but they have rightly challenged us as a country to do better by our responsibility to our armed forces and veterans communities. Therefore I very much support the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill. It has been an important and successful role in Scotland, and I think there is much to learn from the work of the commissioner there, but we can go further.
I agree very much with what the Royal British Legion has said about ensuring that the armed forces covenant is a duty not just for local authorities, but for central Government and for the devolved Administrations. Also, we could do more to provide guidance for local authorities to ensure that they know what in practice it looks like to work alongside our veterans charities to ensure that our veterans are properly supported and fully included in our communities, and that we as a nation live up to our duties and our role to ensure that we meet our responsibilities as a nation to our armed forces personnel and to our veterans.