Meeting of the Parliament 09 December 2025
I thank the 176,000 UK armed forces veterans who live in Scotland, and I would also like to mention the one in 30 adults in Shetland who have served in the UK armed forces. To all those veterans, we owe a debt of gratitude, and it is important that their service to the country is recognised and not forgotten. Let me be clear in saying at the outset of my remarks that, when the state fails our veterans in the support that they need, it is a stain on our society.
I thank Susie Hamilton, the Scottish Veterans Commissioner, for providing an update in her independent progress report. I note her assessment that the general practice armed forces and veterans recognition scheme continues to have a disappointingly low uptake. Increasing the number of GP practices that participate is essential to achieving equity of access.
NHS Shetland signed the armed forces covenant in 2022, and Brian Chittick, the organisation’s current chief executive and armed forces champion, has previously served.
On housing policy, the commissioner highlights the fact that progress on the veterans homelessness prevention pathway was poor last year, and that a faster pace and greater scale of delivery are required to meet reasonable timescales. She also calls for a more formal structure to provide strategic leadership and clearer collaboration between public, private and third sector partners to achieve long-term improvement.
I want to say a wee bit about veteran entrepreneurship. Veterans bring a depth of experience, discipline and leadership to Scottish businesses that is unmatched in most sectors of civilian life. Our most junior soldiers, sailors, marines and aviators complete a minimum of 13 weeks of intensive, world-class training that equips them to be exceptional employees from day 1. A corporal or equivalent will undergo a further 16 weeks of leadership instruction in unforgiving, high-pressure environments. By the time someone reaches sergeant rank, they will have completed an additional 12-week leadership and management course that qualifies them to manage millions of pounds-worth of equipment, lead teams and run complex operations that, in civilian terms, look remarkably like running a business unit. Those are the people who are entering or returning to our civilian workforce. Their contribution to Scotland’s economy lies not only in the skills that they bring, but in their mindset—they have a distinctive entrepreneurial drive, a habit of solving problems and a determination to get things done.
The Scottish Government does not currently collect data on veteran-owned businesses, but estimates from UK-wide research suggest that there might be about 24,000 veteran-run firms in Scotland. Those businesses generate jobs, innovate across sectors and contribute directly to regional economic growth. In Shetland, we can point to the example of the SaxaVord spaceport as an entrepreneurial vision that has been realised by ex-RAF personnel. Without Scotland-specific data, we cannot fully understand or support that economic engine, so the Scottish Government should look to address that.
My party would like more to be done to help current armed forces families. In England, the service pupil premium, which was introduced by the Liberal Democrats in 2011, recognises that children from armed forces families often face disrupted schooling, frequent moves and periods of parental absence. The policy provides targeted funding to help schools to support those pupils academically and emotionally, but no equivalent system exists in Scotland. Increasingly, service personnel live and work separately from their families, sometimes commuting weekly across the country, which puts enormous strain on support networks and could leave families isolated socially, educationally and emotionally. By not offering a Scottish equivalent to the service pupil premium, we are asking armed forces families to absorb those pressures alone, we risk undermining the wellbeing of children who already face greater instability than most, and we are missing an opportunity to ensure that Scotland remains a welcoming and supportive place for those who serve.
If Scotland values the contribution that veterans make to our economy and the sacrifices that their families make on our behalf, we must match that sentiment with action. That means recognising the unique pressures that armed forces children face and ensuring that our policies do not fall behind those in the rest of the UK when it comes to supporting those who have served and those who still do.