Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many psychologists were employed in the armed forces in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anna Soubry
This Government takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that Defence personnel, their families and veterans are properly looked after; advice and support to personnel suffering with mental health problems is available from a wide range of sources, both within the chain of command and from specialists.
The Ministry of Defence does not employ counsellors or psychologists within the Armed Forces. However, civilian psychologists are employed by Defence Medical Services (DMS), and the following table sets out the number of civilian psychologist posts funded by DMS in each Financial Year since 2010;
For information on the range of measures which have been taken to support personnel with psychological injuries, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24 June 2014, (Official Report, columns 159-60W) to the hon. Member for Barnsley Central (Mr Jarvis).
| Financial Year | Number of Psychologist Posts in DMS |
| 2010-11 | 7 |
| 2011-12 | 7 |
| 2012-13 | 12 |
| 2013-14 | 15 |
| 2014-15 | 15 |
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many counsellors were employed in the armed forces in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anna Soubry
This Government takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that Defence personnel, their families and veterans are properly looked after; advice and support to personnel suffering with mental health problems is available from a wide range of sources, both within the chain of command and from specialists.
The Ministry of Defence does not employ counsellors or psychologists within the Armed Forces. However, civilian psychologists are employed by Defence Medical Services (DMS), and the following table sets out the number of civilian psychologist posts funded by DMS in each Financial Year since 2010;
For information on the range of measures which have been taken to support personnel with psychological injuries, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24 June 2014, (Official Report, columns 159-60W) to the hon. Member for Barnsley Central (Mr Jarvis).
| Financial Year | Number of Psychologist Posts in DMS |
| 2010-11 | 7 |
| 2011-12 | 7 |
| 2012-13 | 12 |
| 2013-14 | 15 |
| 2014-15 | 15 |
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency received in each year since 2010; and whether those complaints have been categorised.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency, now Veterans UK, received the following number of complaints about the standard of customer service received, categorised into the Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS), War Pensions Scheme (WPS) and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS). The number of complaints about standards of customer service from military personnel were only counted from January 2014.
2010
AFPS 30
WPS/AFCS 445
Total Complaints 475
2011
AFPS 15
WPS/AFCS 420
Total Complaints 435
2012
AFPS 10
WPS/AFCS 460
Total Complaints 470
2013
AFPS 30
WPS/AFCS 290
Total Complaints 320
2014 (to 31 July)
AFPS 25
WPS/AFCS 95
Military Personnel 10
Total Complaints 130
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what checks and balances he has put in place to ensure that Veterans UK is accountable to his Department.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Veterans UK and the former Service Personnel and Veterans Agency are part of Defence Business Services (DBS) and form part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). DBS is responsible and accountable to the MOD Permanent Under Secretary and Ministers who are answerable to Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what checks and balances he put in place to ensure that the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency was accountable to his Department.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Veterans UK and the former Service Personnel and Veterans Agency are part of Defence Business Services (DBS) and form part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). DBS is responsible and accountable to the MOD Permanent Under Secretary and Ministers who are answerable to Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the guideline period is in which an application for an armed forces pension should be (a) processed and (b) delivered; and how many applications have exceeded that guideline period to date.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The guideline period in which an application for an armed forces pension should be processed and delivered is:
Awards are to be calculated, authorised and payment instructions established for entitled individuals within 10 working days of the termination date or receipt of all documentation, whichever is the later. Only one application exceeded that guideline period for the year 2013-14, with none this year to end July 2014
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints Veterans UK has received since its creation; and whether those complaints have been categorised.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Veterans UK was formed on 1 April 2014 as part of the merger of the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency into Defence Business Services.
Veterans UK has received a total of 122 complaints since April 2014. These are broken down into 25 Armed Forces Pension Scheme, and 97 War Pension and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme complaints.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when designing the application process for the armed forces pension, what weight his Department gave to the ease of use of the system.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Armed Forces Pension Scheme is an occupational pension scheme whereby the recipient has entitlement based on their reckonable service in HM Forces. Every effort is made to make the Armed Forces Pension Scheme application form (Pen1) as simple as possible whilst ensuring that all salient points are included, particularly for legal reasons.
There is an online version of the application form which pre-fills several boxes using data taken directly from the Service person’s record. Current statistics on its use against paper applications are below which demonstrates its success.
January - June 2014
| ||||
Electronic | Hard Copy | Total | ||
January | 1352 | 242 | 1594 | |
February | 1174 | 193 | 1367 | |
March | 1131 | 256 | 1387 | |
April | 1081 | 148 | 1229 | |
May | 1166 | 167 | 1333 | |
June | 1493 | 200 | 1693 | |
Total | 7397 | 1206 | 8603 | |
Average % | 86% | 14% | 100% | |