LGBT Veterans Independent Review

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

Monday 23rd February 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, my father hugely enjoyed working for the noble Lord, Lord West, in Washington DC and London, so I believe I have some understanding of the commitment of veterans. Many of the veterans involved in this redress scheme face excessive delays in accessing their own service records, as those applying for the financial recognition scheme are not prioritised for subject access requests. Surely that is neither fair nor reasonable.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

My Lords, there is a reverse burden of proof, so anybody applying to the scheme is believed; it is up to the MoD to show that their service records do not match what they put forward. Everybody asked for that, and everybody accepted that it was really important. It is not in anybody’s interest to delay anything. We respect veterans, as the noble Earl does, and we want as many people to receive recognition under the terms of this scheme as possible. We will do everything to ensure that happens. There is no delay on the Government’s part.

On the noble Earl’s point on the service records, should somebody be refused recognition under the scheme, they can apply for the evidence that the MoD used to refuse them that recognition and use it as part of furthering their appeal against refusal. I think the MoD is trying to do that. On subject access requests, I think that takes us into medical records and a different dataset. I reassure the noble Earl that anything used in evidence to refuse recognition under the scheme will be released to the person who made the application.