Veterans

(asked on 30th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what consultations his Department has conducted on the proposed outsourcing of veteran services; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Tobias Ellwood Portrait
Tobias Ellwood
This question was answered on 5th November 2018

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing high quality services to our veterans and their families and we are continually looking for ways to improve these services. The Future Service Delivery Contract (FSDC) competition was launched on 6 April 2018 to re-compete the currently outsourced contract for the delivery of military pay, pensions and administration of personnel records which expires in November 2019.

Included in the scope of the project is the market testing of some areas that are not currently outsourced, including some elements of veterans services; the Armed Forces Compensation Schemes and the War Pensions Schemes (and their associated support services). Their inclusion for market testing in no way indicates that the outcome will be the addition of these services to the already outsourced contract. However, we owe it to taxpayers and our serving military and veterans to explore whether the market can deliver increased value for money and more up to date digital enhancements to improve the efficiency and quality of the services. We also need to be sure that the current in-house delivery is still providing the best value and quality for Defence.

The FSDC Project has regularly engaged with Trades Unions and stakeholders across Defence. Formal TU Consultation will take place at the appropriate time, should the market testing show that an external provider could provide better value for money.

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