Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many veterans can be identified via the verification processes of the Royal British Legion and other service charities.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has access to the records of all service personnel who have served in the UK armed forces. From 1972 onwards the information is held electronically by the MOD, either in the DPRR (data preservation repository reporting) or in the Joint Personnel Administration System. This equates to approximately 2.1 million records.

Prior to 1972 the MOD holds an index of all service personnel IDs (name and service number) to facilitate the recall of service records from the National Archive (all records from WW2 onwards), approximately 4.9m records.

Currently, Service charities approach the single Services or Defence Business Services for verification of an individual veteran’s service. However, more than £1 million in new money is being invested into a new digital verification service for veterans, which will enable them to verify their veteran status online quickly and easily.