Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January to Written Question 111659 on Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and War Pensions, whether the data required to establish how many applicants withdrew or did not take steps to progress their claim will be digitised as part of efforts to digitise War Pensions in the Veterans Strategy Action Plan.

The Veterans Welfare Service is available at all stages to assist a Veteran through the process of making a claim. Data is captured to understand the total number of claims made, clearance times and outcomes. There are many reasons why an applicant may not choose to continue a claim, which is a private matter for them, and is not information the Ministry of Defence needs to capture in order to process claims or monitor performance. Veterans UK is embarked on a £40 million programme to put all pension and compensation services online and digitise what can be very substantial paper files. This will significantly reduce the time taken to respond to veterans' enquiries. The design of the new system has not yet been finalised and I have asked my officials to investigate the practicalities of capturing management information on withdrawals as part of that work.