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Armed Forces

My Lords, I thank all those who contributed to this debate. There have been common themes in what we have all said. While there will be differences in emphasis and on particular issues, it is clear that all noble Lords share an admiration for those who fight on our behalf and all are keen that recognition of that contribution should not be lost on any occasion. It is also clear that we all want to do as much as possible and that we all have a clear commitment to working to realise the White Paper’s ambitions and themes in terms of making life easier for, and rewarding the contributions of, those who serve this country. The fact that we are discussing this issue in the context of the military covenant and the nation’s commitment is something that is relatively new. When I first came to the department and asked about the military covenant and its history I was somewhat surprised to learn that it is not something that had been written down many years ago but that it is relatively recent. As I said earlier, this White Paper is the first time that any Government have tried to put into writing their commitment to those in our armed services, their families and our veterans. We are taking a significant step forward. While we may all want to move more quickly on a range of issues, it is significant that we are having this debate. We should start by acknowledging that this issue has come to the fore partly because we now have people on operations whose contribution is, quite rightly, much more in people’s minds than perhaps used to be the case. I will try to cover as many of the points raised as possible, but if there are any significant ones that I do not cover I will write to noble Lords later. The noble Lord, Lord Astor, welcomed the White Paper but commented that some of it seems to provide bureaucratic solutions. Although individual people are at the heart of what we are trying to do, many of their concerns arise because of bureaucratic systems that have sometimes acted to the detriment of those working in the Armed Forces. We do not want to see a situation where regulations about hospital waiting lists or access to local schools stand in the way of those in the Armed Forces or disadvantage them. So it is only natural that many of the solutions we are putting forward are about the process and making sure that people get what they are entitled to. It is important that we get that situation into perspective. The noble Lord asked several specific questions and other noble Lords referred to some of the same issues. I will try to cover those, starting with the air bridge, which is extremely important and is under pressure because we are engaged in operations a long way away. We have to be careful in how we access these countries in such difficult and dangerous circumstances. As for the fact that 56 per cent of flights bringing people home are on time, I am not sure what the commercial airlines’ figures are but, given that we are talking about war zones, our figures are not an absolute disaster. It is important that people should get back to their families and have some relief as quickly as possible, but, as the noble Lord said, 17 per cent of flights were significantly delayed. We have to put safety first. We can fly into certain places only if we have aircraft with the defensive aid suites that are necessary to provide protection. That means that those aircraft work extremely hard and we have to keep the maintenance up. We cannot afford to take risks in those circumstances. Safety has to be our priority. It is right that we should look for new ways of getting people back—having a stopover in Cyprus has proved valuable and been appreciated—but we cannot afford to take any risks and fly aircraft that do not have defensive aid suites. The noble Lord and others mentioned the A400M. We have put considerable investment into the A400M, as have other countries. The delay is concerning us and we are talking to the companies involved about that delay. We are doing so along with other countries, because this is not a single-country project. The partner nations are concerned by the announcements that have been made by EADS and Airbus Military regarding those delays, and we have had several discussions about them. It is important that we have a common approach from all the countries because a number of them are looking forward to that aircraft coming into operation. The company acknowledges the problems. The noble Lord also mentioned the issue of unsolicited parcels and the fact that this year we are asking people not to send unnamed parcels to people because of the extra stress it puts on the air bridge. I think that that is a reasonable position to take. Obviously, it is nice for people to receive parcels at Christmas, but parcels from anonymous sources or schools often frustrate our troops. Although these parcels are welcome, they take up capacity on the aircraft while other parcels from home—from their wives, mothers or families—cannot get through. We want to concentrate on ensuring that parcels from family members and friends, which are properly addressed to individual members of the Armed Forces, get through. That has to be our priority.