Meeting of the Parliament 04 December 2018
I support the motion and my colleague Maurice Corry’s amendment. We are fortunate to live in an open and free democracy where we are able to debate the ideas and principles that inform our decision making. Indeed, we have the luxury of agreeing to disagree on occasion. We should be in little doubt that we are able to do so because our democracy has been defended when it has been under threat.
Throughout the decades, generations of service personnel have answered the call and served their country with honour and distinction. Many return home with storied tales of their service; others, sadly, do not. It is with that sacrifice in mind that I pay tribute to all who have served, be that at home or abroad, by land, sea or air. They represent the very best in our nation. Therefore, we owe them not just an immeasurable debt of gratitude but whatever care and support they need on returning home.
On that note, I whole-heartedly welcome the new report “The strategy for our veterans”, which was published last month. I particularly praise the tone and the way in which all parties involved have handled the issue. As members have noted, the strategy identifies the six key themes that should be at the forefront of our consideration when dealing with veterans’ issues. Each of those themes is worthy of our attention. When a lower percentage of veterans are in work compared with the rest of the population, we need to talk about employment. When almost a third have only one close friend or no close friends, we need to talk about integration into communities. When 27 per cent admit to having suicidal thoughts, we need to talk about physical and mental health.
I will specifically mention one theme that I did not include in that list: the need to ensure that our veterans have a place to live that suits their needs. To my mind, that should be not a key theme but a bare minimum, and we should be doing much better on that issue. I do not seek to suggest that it is a seasonal issue. Nevertheless, as we approach the winter period, the problem of homelessness becomes even more acute, which is something on which we should reflect. Importantly, the strategy identifies new cross-cutting factors that we can use to improve outcomes across these metrics.
I particularly want to mention the vital steps that are being taken to improve the collection and analysis of data on the needs of veterans, which will give us a greater base to inform decision making.
As the report notes:
“The UK population value Veterans”.
I believe that the veteran community recognises that. With a strategy that will see us through the next decade, we must keep working at it in order to make the improvements in service delivery that our veterans richly deserve.
I believe that a combined approach between Governments, portfolios and sectors is the right way to go, which is ably demonstrated by the co-operative work that went into the report.
The armed forces covenant and all the work that it commits us to is a profoundly good thing. It should focus our minds on the scale of the task ahead, and I am sure that it will. We do a good job of taking care of our veterans, but we can always do better, so let us work together to do just that.
16:09