Much of the policy that impacts Service families and veterans within the UK is not owned by Defence. We work with Other Government Departments and the Devolved Administrations to ensure that, wherever possible, disadvantage associated with Service life is mitigated and effective support is provided; the Armed Forces Covenant is an especially important tool in this.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend and, as ever, pay tribute to him for the work he has done in this area. It is the case that when people move around the country, they are disadvantaged. We recognise that, which is why integrated care boards are now running a pilot scheme on how we can get around people losing their places on waiting lists when they travel around the country. Obviously, the issue involves other Government Departments too. Nevertheless, we have a responsibility, which we discharge in a number of ways. For example, HeadFIT is being adapted and adopted at the moment to ensure that our veterans and service families are able to access much of its content.

My hon. Friend will be interested to hear that I have a slightly different number. My number is that 106 of his report’s 110 recommendations have been accepted. Regardless of the exact figure, I entirely agree on the importance of making sure that armed forces families live in decent accommodation. When we ask armed forces personnel to fight abroad, they should live in good accommodation when they come home.

My hon. Friend is familiar with the steering group, which includes families, federations and the authors of his excellent report, and he will be pleased to hear that it meets again on 28 February.

Families are an integral part of the armed forces community. Our commitment to them remains strong and is reinforced by the Haythornthwaite review, the defence Command Paper refresh, the families strategy, which was published

in January 2022, and my hon. Friend’s excellent “Living in our Shoes” framework for delivering more family-sympathetic policies.

My hon. Friend will forgive me if I do not know off the top of my head what those recommendations relate to. I can say to him that Defence is very fortunate in having him and his colleagues as co-authors of the report on the armed forces family strategy steering group, acting as critical friends and holding Defence to account against the strategy action plan. I would be more than happy to meet him to go through those recommendations one by one.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is working with the Department for Transport (DfT) to understand opportunities for Defence to support the UK Jet Zero Strategy. As a baseline, MOD procurement of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) will be led by the DfT SAF Mandate which intends to introduce a minimum percentage of sustainably derived fuel into aviation fuel sales from 2025, increasing to 10% by 2030, and continuing to increase beyond that point. The MOD is already seeking to procure SAF earlier than 2025, ahead of the mandate, in order to play its part in the migration towards a zero-carbon economy, including the desire to help create a domestic demand.

The Government responded to the 110 recommendations of the comprehensive Living in Our Shoes report in March 2021 and committed to taking this forward through the Armed Forces Families Strategy. Since the publication of the Strategy in January 2022, a great deal of work has taken place to formulate the priorities under the Action Plan, to understand what changes can be delivered in the short, medium and longer term. As the Living in Our Shoes report acknowledged, many of the recommendations are ambitious and will be delivered towards the middle or latter part of the 10-year programme. However, there is much we can do now and indeed many of the recommendations from Living in Our Shoes have in effect already been delivered. An update on progress with the implementation of the Strategy can be found in the 2022 Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report, published on 19 December 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/armed-forces-covenant-and-veterans-annual-report-2022

As one of the UK's largest landowners the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to contributing to the Government's nature restoration targets and enhancing biodiversity across its estate. Indeed, for 15 years it has funded a programme to improve the condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) across the Defence estate to support the Governments targets for protected sites.

The MOD is developing a Nature Recovery Plan as required by the Greening Government Commitments. This will include an assessment of the potential future contribution to protected sites and other nature recovery targets. This plan will take account of the Defence imperative, current and future military requirements and where other land use contribute to Defence outputs such as carbon sequestration, renewable energy schemes and tenant farming.

The MOD will continue to engage with Nature Conservation Bodies and Nature Recovery Networks to complement the Department's approach.

The Government responded to the 110 recommendations of the comprehensive Living in Our Shoes report in March 2021. This response, which set the baseline for the new Armed Forces Families Strategy, included input from the Devolved Administrations.

Since the publication of the Strategy in January of this year, a great deal of work has taken place to formulate the priorities under the Action Plan, to understand what changes can be delivered in the short, medium and longer term. As the Living in Our Shoes report acknowledged, many of the recommendations are ambitious and will be delivered towards the middle or latter part of the 10-year programme. However, there is much we can do now and indeed many of the recommendations from Living in Our Shoes have in effect already been delivered. There will be an update on progress with the implementation of the Strategy in the Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report, which is due to be published by the end of the calendar year.

May I first pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his excellent, comprehensive report? Families are an integral part of the armed forces community, and our evolving assistance to them includes funding wraparound childcare, supporting children’s education and the employment of partners as societal expectations evolve and change. The armed forces families strategy, published in January, sets out the Government’s response to “Living in our Shoes” and sets the framework for the delivery of more sympathetic policies in relation to armed forces families that are fit for the future.

I am very sympathetic to my hon. Friend. We owe so much to our families and he highlights that very well in his report. Of course we meet service families all the time and I am more than happy to meet him at any time to update him on what we intend to do

as a result of his report and indeed the veterans strategy, published earlier this year, which covered many service families and members of the service community.

The Armed Forces (AF) Families Plan is derived from both the Defence Plan, and the AF Families Strategy (the latter of which was published on 19 January 2022). Like the AF Families Strategy, the AF Families Plan reflects - but is not exclusively driven by - the commitments in the Government's response to my hon. Friend's comprehensive and insightful report 'Living in our Shoes'. The Plan provides direction to those organisations with policy and/or delivery responsibilities related to Armed Forces families, wherever those families are based across the world. The Plan is dynamic and will be updated routinely to reflect changes in the wider context, and the continuous development and improvement in families-related policy and delivery. Although the Plan will provide essential coherence, it is important to note that many of the key actions within the Plan are already being delivered through existing measures and will now be absorbed within it. We will shortly be publishing a high level version of the plan [on gov.uk] and we will be including implementation updates through the Covenant Annual Report.

The Government response to the Living in Our Shoes report included a commitment to publish an ambitious new strategy for Armed Forces families.

The new strategy will provide a framework for measuring progress against the Living in Our Shoes recommendations, many of which are already being actioned.

Progress will be reported publicly through the Armed Forces Covenant annual report. The strategy will be published this autumn.

Regular analysis conducted by the Army has confirmed the requirement for a range of armoured vehicles. This analysis includes a review of current and future threats and the environment in which vehicles are required to operate; work continues to focus on these areas to inform the Integrated Review.

Regular analysis conducted by the Army has confirmed the requirement for a range of armoured vehicles. This analysis includes a review of current and future threats and the environment in which vehicles are required to operate; work continues to focus on these areas to inform the Integrated Review.

The UK is firmly committed to the core NATO principles of collective deterrence and defence. Fifth Battalion The Rifles currently lead an Armoured Infantry Battlegroup in Estonia, as a Framework Nation for Enhanced Forward Presence. We currently provide Challenger 2, the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle, and a suite of Armoured capabilities from the UK's Third Division to the multinational presence there. In addition, the UK contributes a Light Cavalry Squadron to the US led Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Poland, currently provided by the Queen's Dragoon Guards and reservists from the Royal Yeomanry.

The UK also makes one of the largest commitments to NATO's high-readiness forces, including the NATO Response Force, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, and we host the headquarters of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. NATO's conventional deterrence extends to the enhanced air policing mission and standing maritime groups as well - to which the UK is also a major contributor.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to improving diversity of opportunity and creating an inclusive working environment that attracts the best talent, and makes the most of potential skills and productivity.

The MOD is working with the Cabinet Office to implement the principles of the Ban the Box campaign.

The information requested relating to how many Ministry of Defence Service and civilian employees have unspent convictions could be provided only at disproportionate cost.