Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he will publish the action plan for the UK Armed Forces Families Strategy in order to implement the agreed recommendations of the independent report commissioned by his Department, Living in our shoes; and if he will make a statement.

The Armed Forces (AF) Families Plan is derived from both the Defence Plan, and the AF Families Strategy (the latter of which was published on 19 January 2022). Like the AF Families Strategy, the AF Families Plan reflects - but is not exclusively driven by - the commitments in the Government's response to my hon. Friend's comprehensive and insightful report 'Living in our Shoes'. The Plan provides direction to those organisations with policy and/or delivery responsibilities related to Armed Forces families, wherever those families are based across the world. The Plan is dynamic and will be updated routinely to reflect changes in the wider context, and the continuous development and improvement in families-related policy and delivery. Although the Plan will provide essential coherence, it is important to note that many of the key actions within the Plan are already being delivered through existing measures and will now be absorbed within it. We will shortly be publishing a high level version of the plan [on gov.uk] and we will be including implementation updates through the Covenant Annual Report.