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Service Personnel

I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman makes in welcoming this announcement. This compensation scheme started in 2005. We have committed ourselves to a system of benefits that will ensure that all those who have been compensated under the scheme will have been treated in exactly the same way as all those who prospectively make an application to the scheme. Those who were dealt with under an entirely different scheme, which operated an entirely different method, are continuing to receive the benefits, although some of them have yet to receive the benefits under the qualifications in that scheme. I think it would be dishonest of me to suggest that any Government would be likely to apply the changes to one scheme retrospectively to an entirely different scheme altogether, but I recognise the point that the hon. Gentleman makes. There may be other ways in which we can support those people, and certainly some of the other improvements that are announced in the document that we have published today will be of benefit to them.