Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of service life on non-UK nationality families of serving personnel.

This Government recognises and values the vital support which all Service families provide to our Armed Forces, which enables them to serve our country both in the UK and overseas in order to maintain national security.

We are therefore committed through the Armed Forces Covenant to continuously work to improve the lives of the Armed Forces community in conjunction with other Government Departments, and work is currently underway to fully extend the legal duty further.

For our non-UK families, much of that work focusses on their UK immigration status, and the Ministry of Defence works very closely with the Home Office to ensure that those who serve or have served in the Regular Armed Forces and their families are not disadvantaged by Service life. This includes special Immigration Rules Appendix HM Armed Forces which offer a number of advantages for families such as being exempt from paying the Immigration Health Surcharge to access NHS services; being granted visas for entry to the UK valid for up to 60 months compared to 30 months on other family routes; being able to count time outside the UK on accompanied overseas assignments towards future Settlement or naturalisation applications; and children born in the UK or qualifying territories to Serving personnel are British by birth.

Support and information is also available to families on a range of issues including relocation, accommodation, education and NHS facilities through the Single Services, the HIVE Information Centres, the new Families Hub and the Families Federations.