Written question asked by Andrew Stephenson (Conservative) on Wednesday, 14 December 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 December 2011. It was answered by Lord Robathan (Conservative) on Tuesday, 10 January 2012 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Jordan Bancroft

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of his Department's treatment of the parents of deceased soldier Jordan Bancroft.

Answer: The Ministry of Defence regrets any unintended insensitivity on its part and a complete review of all the correspondence undertaken by the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency with bereaved families has been instigated.It is departmental policy never to ask the families of those killed in service to pay money back. Our aim is always to ensure families receive the right amount of money as quickly as possible and to conduct a reconciliation of their pay accounts as soon as we have all the information available to us. We do not collect any money from the families of deceased personnel, but we do adjust future payments to ensure families receive all the money to which they are entitled; this includes a payment for any unspent days of leave.

Secondary information