Speeches by Carns.

“I am here to talk about the Armed Forces Bill.”

“I will pass over to Marc.”

“That is a very good question. I think we will see very few people who are still serving opting out of the increase in Strategic Reserve liability. What does that mean? When you leave the service, you will now have a standardised return of 18 years, from the lowest rank of private to sergeant to warrant officer, all the…”

“Ninety-five thousand.”

“It is a really good question. If we step back, at the moment we have a whole multitude of types of Reserves. We have two types of Reserve forces, seven Reserve services and 16 different terms and conditions of service. I am going to be really honest: the thing’s a mess. This Bill is the first step to simplifying that p…”

“Speak to the leads—my opposite numbers in the devolved Governments. I have briefed them, as this Bill has been progressing, on the Covenant, VALOUR and indeed some of the work on the Reserves. We keep that close contact to ensure that we are aligned as much as possible on the implementation of the Covenant and the stan…”

“The team will have the detail on the engagement that we have at official level; it is actually quite regular. The problem in local government that I mentioned, which is about education and communication with the armed forces, is equally applicable at the Government level in some cases. You will recognise this across va…”

“Yes, 100%. We have taken it on with the ONS to make sure it is included in the next census. It is worth noting, speaking to different veteran cohorts around the country, that some people want to be recognised as a veteran and some people don’t. We have to leave that option open once people have left. Some people want n…”

“Leaving the forces is an interesting one. We might want to come on to it when we get on to the Reserves, because technically a lot of people who leave still have a legal liability for recall. You could argue that they are not necessarily a veteran, but we now give veteran cards as soon as people leave the gates of a mi…”

“There are three different bits to VALOUR. These are steps in the right direction to start formalising our support to veterans and the armed forces community. VALOUR has three sections. First, we recognised that there was a lack of data on veterans once they left. There is a national census going out, but there is not a…”

“I think £1.5 million is adequate for central Government, but I remind you that we have also put £50 million into standardising the procedures down into local government. We are seeing the VALOUR centres and field officers roll out now. They are particularly focused on veterans, but you will end up with field officers, …”

“That is leadership, Paul.”

“We have to be really careful about Whitehall dictating, to local councils and local government, solutions that require local nuance. Northern Ireland, for example, will be very different from England in how veterans are engaged with, or even how we capture data, just because of some of the security concerns and issues …”

“You are absolutely right, Luke, and you are on to something. In my last job, as Minister for Veterans and People, I went around the country and saw different types of armed forces champions. Some are part time, some are full time. Some are employed by the council, some are not. Some have different terms of reference, a…”

“Early on, when I came into this job, I talked about whether we could thicken it. Actually, I think what we need to do is make sure that it is absolutely clear in the statutory guidance. After going around all the different local governments—and indeed devolved Governments, whether that be Northern Ireland, Scotland or …”

“I think the yearly report that we are going to put out will be a good way of holding people to account both at the local and national level. However, it is going to be individuals in the local council who are going to have to champion armed forces requirements. That is what I would like to see. We are in the first stag…”

“There are a couple of things we are looking at, and a couple of things that we have done. First, as this moves forward and the duty expands, there will be Covenant champions in other Government Departments—I will hand over to the team in a minute as they can perhaps provide a bit more detail. Hopefully they will be peo…”

“On due regard, different local areas have different pressures on local government. I always go back to this: from my perspective in the armed forces community, and we must ensure that our veterans and armed forces personnel are never disadvantaged because of their service, but local councils also have some really diffi…”

“The reality is that it is delivered inconsistently across the United Kingdom, and where you live will affect the level of services you get. The Covenant covers several policy areas, and the Bill will now expand that to 12 plus two, which will be pretty significant. It will put due regard on to local councils and those …”

“I am Al Carns, and I am the Minister for the Armed Forces.”