Hansard

I warmly thank colleagues from across the chamber for their contributions. The debate has been relatively brief, but it has very much re-emphasised the cross-party nature of the Parliament’s commitment to do the best by our veterans and the wider armed forces community.

I will pick up on aspects of the contributions that we heard. I will start with Mike Rumbles and may give a nod to Jackie Baillie.

During the debate in September, the Minister for Mental Health and I made it clear that the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all serving armed forces personnel and veterans who live in Scotland can access the best possible care and support, including safe and effective healthcare that meets their needs. I reiterate that today.

Veterans already have a first point of contact in the form of veterans champions, who are in place in every health board. We are working to strengthen the network of champions and use it better.

We have also shared information with health boards to ensure that all NHS staff are aware of veterans’ health rights, and we continue to work with health boards, champions and stakeholders to raise awareness and to address any barriers. However, I say to Mike Rumbles and to any other members who have specific evidence or examples of cases anywhere—not just in NHS Grampian—of veterans encountering difficulty in accessing support services, they should let us know. While responsibility for delivery may lie with individual boards or health and social care partnerships, as we set out in the “Renewing our Commitments” document that was published in 2016, we expect that there should be no disadvantages when it comes to accessing services.

I turn to other members’ contributions. Maurice Corry rightly noted the role of the charitable sector in delivering the aims of the strategy. I agree with him about the need for effective co-ordination and collaboration around the delivery of services.

I offer Mark Griffin a couple of assurances around the asks that he had. On housing and homelessness, my colleague Kevin Stewart, who has oversight of such matters, is very much aware of the veterans element to them. On access to health services and the commissioner’s report to which Mr Griffin referred, I can advise him that, as recently as this morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport sent me an update on our response to that report and on the progress that is being made. Of course, that reflects the fact that the Scottish Government accepted all the report’s recommendations. I will be happy to write to Mark Griffin further on that.

Stuart McMillan asked for information on the census question. The final decision on the inclusion of such a question will lie with the Parliament, of course, but the Scottish Government’s intention is to lay a draft order in late 2019. Judging by the tone and nature of this debate, I do not think that we will struggle for support when that happens.

A number of members, including Jackie Baillie and Alex Rowley, raised the issue of mental health. I say to members that that is an absolute priority for the Scottish Government. A record amount of funding has been put in place for veterans to be captured in the implementation of the mental health and suicide prevention strategies. However, beyond that, we have listened to the Scottish veterans commissioner’s asks for a veterans’ health network and for the production of a mental health action plan from that, both of which are very much on our agenda.

I turn briefly to Edward Mountain’s central point. I very much recognise the passion that he has for the subject, and I understand the background to that. Of course, his point concerns a reserved matter, as Mr Mountain knows. However, I will be happy to pass on to my UK Government colleagues his views on that issue, which were echoed by those of Mike Rumbles.

The past five months have been a steep learning curve for me, as the new Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans. In October, I set out our achievements to date and our priorities for the year ahead. However, I have also been engaging with organisations and groups of veterans, and have been listening intently while doing so. I offer some observations on areas in which I feel that there is clear room for improvement and in which we have the opportunity, as part of the strategy, both to look across Governments and, with my ministerial colleagues in the Scottish Government, to consider matters further.

The first such area is transition. I focus on that not in order to have a dig at the MOD in any way. Indeed, I noted that, in the recent Commons debate on the strategy, Tobias Ellwood, the UK Government’s Minister for Defence People and Veterans, himself acknowledged that more could be done in that area. I turn to it because there is a recurring theme among many transitioning service personnel to whom I have spoken. Done well, the transition process really can prepare service people for civilian life. However, I have had very mixed feedback about that process, and it is right that we prioritise doing what we can in Scotland to make it work as effectively as possible. I am committed to working with the Ministry of Defence to progress that, and I commend the work that has already taken place—for example, through the veterans employability strategic group, chaired by Mark Bibbey—to make sure that no one falls through the gaps as far as jobs are concerned. However, I accept that more needs to be done, and I undertake to write to Jamie Halcro Johnston on the points that he raised.

Of course, transition is about more than simply finding a job. Let us remember the importance of the wider family in all this, to which Edward Mountain referred. It is not just the serving sailor, soldier or airman who faces a massive change in their life; it is also their spouse or partner and their children. If nothing else, the past five months have really brought home to me the importance of the family unit.

We will have to work across Governments to look at how families are supported. Many former service personnel and families who settle in Scotland were not based here when they left the services. This year, we published “Welcome to Scotland: A guide for Service personnel and their families moving to Scotland” to set out the support that is available to military families who move here, and we are working to ensure that it filters down to those who need it, because there is more that we can do in that regard. I am pleased that the veterans commissioner is looking across a broader remit to consider the wider armed forces community.

Access to employment is another of the key issues for spouses and families. Recently, I was delighted to meet senior members of the navy to explore options for supporting the many spouses who will settle around Faslane as the number of personnel grows in the coming years. I also met Women’s Enterprise Scotland, which ran a successful course at Glencorse barracks to help spouses to set up their own businesses. Shortly, I will visit the spousal employment hub that has been set up in Leuchars to learn more about the challenges and successes in that area. Wives, spouses, partners and families face their own issues and need a range of different support. That was brought home to me recently when I met the War Widows Association to learn about the specific issues that its members face.

All of us here have some degree of understanding that, although most former service personnel transition successfully and are an asset to communities, in some cases adjusting to civilian life can be difficult—