Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs plans to take to improve the Government's statistical knowledge of the (a) number and (b) whereabouts of veterans.

The Veterans' Strategy Action Plan launched in January 2022 sets out over 60 UK Government commitments with a combined value of over £70m to help support veterans and their families between 2022-2024. We are already making good progress with 24% of commitments across the Plan completed at the 6 month point.

One of three ‘Areas of Action’ underpinning this Plan is “Understanding our veteran community: work on data and research to ensure policy across government is rooted in robust evidence”. The Office for Veterans’ Affairs will publish a data and research strategy in Autumn 2022, to set out further steps to better understand the UK’s veteran community.

For the first time ever, we included a question on veteran status in the 2021 Census in England and Wales, and the 2022 Census in Scotland. The Office for National Statistics will analyse and publish the Census data on the veteran population in England and Wales and the results will be published in 2023. This will give us data on the demographics of our veteran population which will allow us to better design and target future support.The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency is working with the MOD to gather data on its veterans and the OVA is working with colleagues across the Devolved Administrations to share best practice and co-ordinate on data collection and analysis.

Following the census, the Office for Veterans’ Affairs has commissioned, alongside the Office for National Statistics, a regular veterans survey. This will gather views and opinions on a range of areas, including life satisfaction, using services, and awareness of services. The first survey will be conducted in later 2022.