Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when servicemen and servicewomen will be able to access credit union facilities through payroll deduction.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer given in the House of Commons on 6 October 2014 to Question 208271. We fully endorse existing, strong credit unions expanding their membership to include the Armed Forces community.

As the noble Lord will be aware, when he met my hon. Friend, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans (Anna Soubry) on 15 October, she confirmed that the facilitation of payroll deduction for Credit Unions is technically possible and that our payroll provider is engaged with officials to scope and cost such deductions. Further work is underway to determine the criteria for access to this facility, and to develop an education campaign for our personnel so they may make informed choices.

Any payroll changes need to be delivered in one of the three releases per year of the intranet-based personnel administration system we use. It is now too late to deliver in November 2014. March 2015 is dedicated to the new pension scheme, therefore the most likely delivery date will be July 2015.