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Defence in the UK

The armed forces compensation scheme is for people who are injured, not those who are killed. Separate arrangements are in place for compensation in some circumstances when people have died on service. The armed forces compensation scheme seeks to pay out as soon as is reasonably possible after a proper assessment of the level of injury. The hon. Gentleman will accept that the level of injury may not be immediately apparent, and we therefore need a proper assessment of that before we can compensate the person for it. The hon. Gentleman is talking about death, for which we need a process to establish culpability. We have tried, where appropriate, to accept culpability so as not to delay the decision further and increase the trauma of the families of those who have lost their lives.