Hansard

I am delighted to conclude the debate on behalf of my party and, as the convener of the cross-party group on armed forces veterans, declare something of an interest. In both those capacities, I welcome the debate, just as I welcome the interest that the Parliament has, since its earliest days, shown in veterans and the issues that they face.

That interest has been continued in a largely exemplary fashion by this Scottish Government. As Dennis Robertson highlighted, that has been welcomed by the armed forces and the veterans community. I sincerely trust that that level of Government support and interest will continue long into the future, no matter what party or combination of parties form our future Governments. The debt of gratitude that we owe to our serving and former servicemen and women, be they in their later years or their teens, demands no less. The motion before us is right to highlight that debt at the outset.

The motion is also right to highlight the truly phenomenal role played by veterans organisations and local authorities veterans champions in helping to focus attention on the many and varied issues and challenges that our veterans face. A quick glance at the agendas of the past few meetings of the cross-party group quite easily highlights those challenges.

We have looked at and discussed the armed forces charter and the Scottish Government’s “Our Commitments” paper. We have looked at the impact of the welfare reform programme on Scotland’s veterans; health and wellbeing issues; housing; and the all-important transition from military to civilian life. We have looked at issues relating to veterans in custody and, in the rest of our programme this year, we will revisit housing, mental health and wellbeing, and the “Our Commitments” paper.

The cross-party group is well attended and greatly valued by veterans organisations, but I would dearly love to see more colleagues at the quarterly meetings. For those in the chamber who have a diary with them, I give notice that the next meeting is on 5 February. I look forward to seeing them there.

The one sector that seems to have been slightly omitted from the motion, though certainly not in many members’ contributions, is the voluntary and charitable sector, whose efforts to help and support veterans is quite immense and, in monetary terms, invaluable. The charities range in size from well-known national organisations such as Poppyscotland, to small charities run by individuals, such as Southwest Scotland RnR in my constituency, which organises courses of what I would call competitive recreation for young physically and often mentally damaged soldiers returning from war zones. That charity simply aims at—and nearly always succeeds in—putting a smile back on the faces of those young people after the traumatic experiences that they have faced on tour—experiences that were vividly highlighted by Mark Griffin in his opening speech.

I share some of the reservations about the commissioner’s role that were expressed by Alex Johnstone and Liam McArthur. If I have one particular reservation it is that he or she may be tempted to tinker with and overformalise the work of the voluntary sector and the smaller charities. I hope that that will not be the case, but I suspect that there will be a temptation to do so, which should be firmly resisted.

I am sorry to conclude on a slightly negative note. I very much welcome the Presiding Officer’s opening statement and register my own disappointment that the announcement of the commissioner was leaked to the media before today’s debate. That blatant bypassing of parliamentary procedure is something of a slap in the face for those who worked to ensure that we had a consensual motion before us this afternoon. I do not believe that it reflects on the personal efforts of the minister and I do not hold him responsible. However, it somewhat diminishes the respect with which his Government is viewed by the rest of the chamber and has cast something of a cloud over an otherwise worthwhile and consensual debate, which has included excellent contributions from all sides of the chamber.

15:19