Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on the Gateway Project for armed forces veterans; and what plans he has to include Northern Ireland within the scope of that project.

The Ministry of Defence has explored options for the development of a veterans gateway service to provide a single cross-sector point of access for all veterans. The Armed Forces Covenant Reference Group has recently directed that the Covenant Fund prioritise funding for a pilot project to set up a 24 hours a day single point of contact veterans gateway service in financial year 2016-17 and this will be formally announced shortly. The project's reach will extend across the UK, including Northern Ireland.