Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what funds the Government has committed to veterans charities in each of the last two years; and how much each such charity has received.

The information is not held in the format requested.

Information held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not differentiate between veterans’ charities; charities that generally support the Armed Forces community including veterans; and charities that have a wider remit but include support to veterans.

For the MOD, the majority of grant programmes supporting veterans are administered via the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (AFCFT), and are listed on their website: https://covenantfund.org.uk

During financial year (FY) 2022-23 the AFCFT awarded 134 grants, totalling just over £7 million to 112 different not-for-profit organisations towards projects to support veterans.

During FY 2023-24 the AFCFT awarded 180 grants, totalling £23.8 million to 122 different organisations.

In addition, the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA), now part of the MOD, has also funded grant programmes to support veterans, some of which were awarded to charities.

For OVA grants administered by the AFCFT, a total of £12 million has been allocated to the following programmes in FYs 2022-23 and 2023-24, some of which were awarded to charities:

• Veterans’ Capital Housing Fund
• Reducing Veteran Homelessness Programme
• Veterans’ Employment Enhancement Programme
• Veterans’ Mobility Fund
• LGBT Support Fund

In addition, during FY 2022-23 and 2023-24 the OVA has directly administered grants to veterans’ charities as detailed in the table below.