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Armed Forces

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity that this debate gives us to discuss a number of very important issues and I congratulate the Minister on securing it. It is to the Government's credit that at long last, in Command Paper 7424, they have taken more seriously than heretofore the importance of giving special consideration to members and former members of the Armed Forces and their families. I hope that all this is not just inspired by the serious and extensive nature of the operations on which this Government have embarked in wars of choice. I say extensive because, as noble Lords will recognise, our Armed Forces have been involved continuously in demanding operations for some years, longer than the years of conflict in the two World Wars. Those two wars were not ““wars of choice””, rather they were ““wars of national survival””. Moreover, in both wars, after much trial and tribulations, a successful end was in view before hostilities ended. Would that the same could be said with equal confidence about Afghanistan; and it has taken us too long time to reach the endgame in Iraq, which I sincerely hope that we have. All three services face a demanding future of operations. So let us all welcome the renewed government concern and the emphasis, in the Minister's own words, on providing unashamedly special treatment for servicemen and women who have endured most in the course of duty, perhaps suffering terrible physical and mental injuries. But I hope we shall not find ourselves back in the world of Rudyard Kipling, who wrote of Tommy Atkins: ““For it’s Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ‘Chuck him out, the brute!’ But it's ‘Saviour of 'is country’ when the guns begin to shoot””. The number of promises and undertakings by government in Command Paper 7424 is most striking. It is extremely comprehensive. It covers a wide field of interest for serving and retired personnel and their families. It involves not only other government departments but the devolved Administrations as well. I welcome this attempt to deal with service issues on a nationwide basis. But noble Lords will be aware that this is no longer the ““default”” position when dealing with matters affecting the Armed Forces and veterans. Only after a considerable battle with the Ministry of Justice, and praying Command Paper 7424 in aid, was the Ministry of Justice prepared to set up a dedicated war pensions and Armed Forces compensation chamber in the new first-tier tribunal to take on the work of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal, in England and Wales, when that was abolished. Meanwhile, pensions appeal tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland, being devolved matters, have not been abolished. Devolution, whatever its benefits, should not place the Armed Forces and dependants in such a confusing no man's land of responsibility for looking after their interests. Similar problems have arisen with regard to the management and oversight of the services' non-public funds, funds that have enjoyed a charitable status since the days of Henry VIII, because charity matters are now another devolved issue. Only after much persuasion were the Government prepared to add, "““the promotion of the efficiency of the armed forces of the Crown””," to the Charities Act 2006. But in the Scottish equivalent charities legislation, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, there is no mention of the Armed Forces at all. I believe that the Government and the devolved Administrations should pay greater attention to avoiding anomalies in the treatment of the Armed Forces. Wherever possible they should agree that the support they provide for the forces and dependants should be equal and where possible provided nationally. After all, the Armed Forces fight for the whole country and not separate regions within it. We must at all costs avoid some form of postcode lottery when dealing with the Armed Forces, veterans and their dependants. As Command Paper 7424 repeatedly emphasises, they must be treated fairly. One of the most striking things when reading through the White Paper is the number of undertakings to do this or that to help and support individuals and families. Chapter 2 is headed ““What We Will Do””, and this promise is repeated paragraph after paragraph throughout that chapter. Maybe it should be characterised as ““Yes we can””. Chapter 3 covers, in the words of the chapter heading, "““What We Have Already Done””." However, a number of ongoing promises have yet to be delivered in full or made more widely known to the potential beneficiaries. I take the view that it is not done until it is done. So these issues need to be considered along with all the other promises of delivery. Wherever there is a will, however, there needs to be an assured way of demonstrating that it has been achieved, and how. So I was pleased to note that there are to be arrangements to make sure of delivery. These say that the Cabinet Office will provide the chair and secretariat and that there will be wide representation on the so-called external reference group. This group will be required to report annually to the Prime Minister and to the Defence Secretary and its report will be published. While that is in many ways a sound intention, I think that it would be even better if the chair was departmentally independent. I invite the Government to consider the advantages that this would bring in giving greater confidence that the actions are properly recorded and that there is no fudging or spins put in the annual reports. I am also concerned that there appear to be no types of sanction that might be imposed if delivery is not achieved or falls behind. There needs to be a method of keeping action rolling forward and not allowing promised improvements to wither because ““funds were not available”” or ““other more pressing matters unfortunately intervened””. When setting up the Armed Forces chamber in the new first-tier tribunal, the Ministry of Justice did agree to set up a steering group with an independent chair. This example should be followed for the Command Paper 7424 oversight. Long experience shows—without wishing to bring a too-discordant note to this debate—that promises of government action have a habit of successfully grabbing the initiating headlines but then running out of steam and, in all too short a time, disappearing from sight. Perhaps I may remind the House of just a couple such instances in the past decade or so. Research into Gulf War illness arising from the exposure of service personnel to organophosphate spray and the use of NAPS tablets to protect them from chemical attack was, after drifting in the 1990s, given top priority by the incoming Government in 1997. Yet now, almost another 11 years on, they have failed to reach a long overdue satisfactory conclusion and closure to this issue. Improvements to service accommodation have repeatedly been promised but, as we heard this afternoon, delivery has at times been far too slow and often unsatisfactory. PFIs have also had mixed success, to the disappointment and disadvantage of service personnel. So I again urge the Government to underwrite their commitments in the White Paper by strengthening their intentions of ensuring ““delivery””. They should appoint a chair independent of government—a senior retired officer. That would give the services confidence that their interests are being taken seriously. Whoever is to chair, they must be given sufficient clout to help ensure that government departments keep up to the mark. Finally, as no doubt there will be occasions when parliamentarians and others wish to question the Government on progress, or lack of progress, on Command Paper 7424’s promises, how do the Government see those questions being answered? Will it be for the department concerned, for example on a health question; or will it be for the Cabinet Office Minister to handle all such questions? Clarity now on how these matters are to be dealt with would help to ensure that questions are not batted from one department to another with no sign of a satisfactory response. The confidence—or otherwise—that Armed Forces personnel, veterans and dependants have in this important government initiative will rest heavily on delivery and on how the Government deal with questions of substance about progress.