Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Monday 11th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Peter Luff)]

Absolutely I can. I too welcome the award of the Hercules integrated operational support contract, which will save the MOD £170 million by replacing several short-term contracts with one overarching contract. It is another example of the policy that we set out in our recent White Paper, with a list of measures to improve the lot of the British defence industry, including a £160 billion equipment programme, strong support for responsible exports, support for small and medium-sized enterprises in the defence sector and strong support for the previously declining science and technology budget.

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

T8. When Sir John Holmes reports on his review of the medals system, is the Prime Minister likely to keep his pre-election promise so that after 67 years the surviving Arctic convoy veterans at last receive a British medal in acknowledgement of their brave service?

[Mr Philip Hammond]

Perhaps I should be clear that the remit of the medals review is to look at the process and at the factors that are taken into account when making such decisions. So the review will look at the framework and the basis on which decisions are taken, and it will then be for individual decisions to be reviewed within any new framework that is put in place.

Armed Forces Covenant

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

Following a successful campaign by the British Legion—which I am pleased to say was supported by Labour—the House welcomed the announcement last May by the former Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), that there was to be an armed forces covenant which would be enshrined in law.

The duty to provide for the welfare of our armed forces goes back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. In 1593 an Act was passed for the Necessary Relief of Soldiers and Mariners, and centuries later the debt owed by the state to our military personnel, who guard our treasured freedom with their very lives, has never diminished. The fact that in recent years our forces have been actively engaged in conflict throughout the globe, which continues to this day in Afghanistan, has given a heightened impetus to working for better terms of service for the armed forces, and making substantial improvements to their welfare and that of their families.

Labour is proud of its record of achievement in defence matters. Under the last Labour Government, the defence budget increased by 10% in real terms. In the course of modernising our armed forces, Labour published, in 2008, the Service Personnel Command Paper and the Report of Inquiry into National Recognition of our Armed Forces. The aim was to develop cross-departmental measures to improve welfare provision and support for the forces, as well as evaluating the relationship between the armed forces and society. The resulting recommendations included proposals for a more systematic approach to homecoming parades, the creation of a British armed forces and veterans day, annual public outreach schemes, and civic education in secondary schools.

At the same time, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats both commissioned reports on the state of the military covenant, and many of the subsequent recommendations formed key pledges in their respective manifestos for the 2010 general election. However, the new coalition Government’s progress towards developing an armed forces covenant was overshadowed by the publication in October 2010 of the strategic defence and security review, which produced not just severe cuts in equipment programmes—for instance, the decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal and the scrapping of the Harriers—but massive cuts in personnel. At the time 17,000 job losses were announced; the number has subsequently increased to at least 22,000, but remains uncertain. The report of the independent Task Force on the Military Covenant was published in December that year, and its recommendations ultimately led to the announcement of the Government’s intention to enshrine the armed forces covenant in law.

It is now 11 months since the covenant was announced, but although an interim report has been produced, it has not been presented to the House. Can the Minister confirm that the House will receive the promised annual report on the implementation of the covenant, and that it will be presented to the House by November this year?

The shadow Defence Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Gemma Doyle), recently raised the issue of funding for accommodation with the Minister during Defence questions. That issue is of great concern to forces personnel and their families. Although the Government have put £100 million into the budget for accommodation, they have already frozen funding for service accommodation for three years up to 2013. That means a total saving of £141 million, and will result in a net cut of £47 million. Can the Minister explain those figures, which clearly do not add up?

The announcement of the doubling of the welfare grant and the increase in council tax relief to 100% is good news for our armed forces personnel and their families. However, in order that neither members of the services nor their families are disadvantaged, will the Minister say when the moneys identified by Labour in the Department for Education’s budget, and agreed by the Secretary of State for Education, will be made available so that the education service premium of £250 is not removed from children whose parents, sadly, have been killed in action?

In the 2010 comprehensive spending review, the Government announced that public sector pensions and benefits would be uprated using the consumer prices index measure rather than the retail prices index, and that that would be a permanent change. As a result, a disabled double-amputee aged 28 at corporal level would lose £587,000 by the age of 70, and a senior non-commissioned officer’s widow would lose £750,000 over her lifetime. Have these people not already lost enough? While it may be necessary to use the CPI measure to calculate the upratings in a time of recession, these examples show that there is no justification for denying our forces and their families their rights and is not in keeping with the spirit of the armed forces covenant.

The armed forces covenant obligation involves the whole of society, including voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations and individuals. Will the Minister say how other Government Departments are implementing their obligations under the covenant? Further, will he say which charitable organisations he is working with in order to meet the obligation?

The armed forces covenant states:

“Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services.”

While the obligation is a duty for the whole of society, the Government must take the lead. Those to whom we owe such a great debt should not be disadvantaged by the cost of the national debt. Without them, we may not have had the freedom to be able to hold this debate today. Labour will work responsibly and in co-operation with the Government on all aspects of national security and the welfare of our armed forces, but we will also continue to challenge the Government to ensure that the obligations under the armed forces covenant are met.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Andrew Robathan)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for North Tyneside (Mrs Glindon) on securing this debate on the armed forces covenant. I have discussed the subject rather a lot over the last two years, so I know a certain amount about it.

I am delighted by the hon. Lady’s new-found interest in the covenant, and I am only sorry that she trotted out some old, incorrect and rather party political figures and arguments, because I had hoped that we could move on and discuss the positive achievements of the covenant. May I also correct her on the following point? We did not introduce the covenant into law because of any campaigns by anybody. It was a manifesto commitment, which was reiterated by the Prime Minister shortly after we took office.

[Mrs Glindon]

However, will the Minister acknowledge the part that the British Legion played?

[Mr Robathan]

I talk to the British Legion the whole time, of course. Indeed, I saw the chief executive on Monday at a conference. We work very closely together, although I am sorry that the Labour party has said that they will be issuing joint press releases, as I think it is important—[Interruption.] Well, I have a document which I can show any Member who might want to look at it. It is important that all charities remain outside the party political arena, and that they are not in any way hijacked by a political party.

Much has been said about the covenant, but I believe that actions speak louder than words, which is why we have placed in law a requirement for the Defence Secretary to report annually to Parliament, clearly setting out what has been achieved and how we are performing. Despite the hon. Lady’s criticisms, I think we are doing rather well, but there is still work to be done. As I have said innumerable times, we are building on the work of the last Government’s Command Paper; I do not think there is any disagreement on that.

The Prime Minister chaired the inaugural ministerial committee meeting on the armed forces covenant, which I believe took place last month, although it could have been at the end of February. I regularly discuss the covenant with the Minister of State, Cabinet Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Mr Letwin), who is the Minister for government policy and is leading cross-departmental work. Indeed, I spent about an hour with him not more than three hours ago. It is also very encouraging to see how communities throughout the country are producing their own community covenants, including in the hon. Lady’s own constituency. I congratulate them on that, because it is an important step forward.

A key principle of the covenant is to tackle disadvantage incurred as a result of service. That is why, today, in a joint announcement with Royal Mail, we have launched a practical initiative to help those who are serving overseas by giving them the opportunity to apply for credit from UK institutions and to shop online. In the past, service personnel have experienced difficulty if they were living overseas due to the absence of a credit score or reference search based on a traditional UK address. From now on, British forces post office addresses will be recognised. That is the kind of relatively minor Government action, working with others, which makes a real difference to the lives of our service personnel and their families.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Robathan]

I am sorry, but I will not give way.

Disadvantage can take many forms but let us not forget that members of the armed forces are also members of the community they serve, and it is only right that they should play their part in the very necessary changes we have had to make to reduce the deficit. Armed forces pay is frozen, as is that of all public sector workers, with the exception of those earning £21,000 or less, to whom we have given £250 in each of the two years of the pay freeze. I am glad to say that pay has also increased incrementally each year for those who are not at the top of their pay scale, and so serving personnel are getting increases, but not an overall increase in the pay scale. That protection was introduced for the armed forces to ensure they were not disadvantaged by their lack of contractual entitlement. This is in accordance with the principles of the armed forces covenant and has meant that most service personnel will have received an increase to their pay during the pay freeze period. I am sure that all hon. Members wish that the same was true of us, too.

I have said to the House before that I did not enter Parliament to make members of the armed forces redundant, especially when we are asking them to do so much in Afghanistan, as we are now. However, we inherited a massive black hole in the Department’s budget, as has now been accepted by the Labour party. That was unsustainable, and something needed to be done and quickly. The strategic defence and security review of October 2010—the first in 13 years—set the requirement for the future. It included removing out-of-date capabilities and it made room to ensure that we can afford those capabilities needed for the future. The second and final tranche of redundancies for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force will conclude in June. The Army will conduct a further tranche and detailed planning is being undertaken. Believe me, this is a painful process that none of us enjoys. As was clearly stated by my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) when he was Defence Secretary, no one currently serving in Afghanistan or on notice to deploy will be made redundant unless they have asked, and are subsequently selected, to be included in the list.

The Government published, in December 2011, the interim report on the armed forces covenant, to which the hon. Lady referred, and I urge the whole House to read it. It was an interim report because the covenant had been in existence for only a few months, and therefore we could not have a whole year’s report. “Transition” is covered in chapter 10, as is “Housing after Service”. The Minister for Housing and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), has recently consulted local authorities on how former service personnel are managed on the local authority housing list. He will announce the findings of that consultation in due course.

On 21 March, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced three new measures to help service personnel. On housing, an extra £100 million has been made available to improve service accommodation. In addition, a much-welcomed doubling in the funding available for families’ welfare while their loved one is away will allow units to fund activities beyond those already announced. It underlines our commitment to those who serve with such selfless devotion to duty, safe in the knowledge that we are looking after their families while they are away.

[Mrs Glindon]

May I refer the Minister back to the figures that I mentioned in my speech? If the £100 million will not be devalued, does that mean that the three-year freeze will be reduced to a two-year freeze so that that £47 million will not be lost?

[Mr Robathan]

We are continuing to refurbish bathrooms and kitchens, for instance, but we are not doing the wholesale modernisation as that has been stopped by the freeze. That £100 million will go towards improvements and the modernisations that will go forward, but there is a freeze. There is a freeze for one simple reason: to quote the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the previous Government, “there is no money”. It is no good saying that we should spend more when we do not have any money.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robathan]

It should happen speedily. The problem is that this is a responsibility across Government and led, I believe, by the Cabinet Office. We want it announced swiftly and we want it to take place swiftly so that we can understand the rules. I am sorry that I can only give this answer, but I think that everyone will be glad to know that I am not responsible for it.

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

When members of the armed forces are facing a two-year pay freeze and 20,000 are losing their jobs, how can the Secretary of State justify bonuses, some of five figures, to senior officers in the MOD civil service?

[Mr Philip Hammond]

I think we have covered this one already. The arrangements for performance-related pay were put in place by the previous Government and were a decision taken by them with which I concurred entirely. It is the right way to incentivise senior civil servants. By paying non-consolidated performance-related pay, we reduce the total cost to the Department. The scheme was introduced in lieu of pay increases.

Arctic Convoy Veterans Medal

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Tuesday 6th December 2011 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Dinenage]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that good intervention. He has, in many ways, hit the nail on the head.

The Minister talked about qualifying periods for medals. The Arctic convoys sailed in excessively awful conditions. It is important to point out that nobody could possibly have managed six months of continuous service in those horrific conditions. There were people who sailed on the convoys, and many who lost limbs in the horrific extreme cold, who did not serve long enough to qualify for the Atlantic star. The Atlantic star qualification—albeit perhaps inadvertently—was therefore set up in such a way as to make sure that nobody who only served in the Arctic convoys could qualify. The Arctic convoy veterans who did receive the Atlantic star—there were a good number of them—only did so because they had also been part of an Atlantic convoy during other parts of the war; they did not receive it purely on the basis of their serving in the Arctic campaign.

Why was the Arctic the only campaign of the second world war to be ignored? The most likely explanation is that, as world war two ended, the cold war began and our relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated. Fear of communism was growing internationally and it was somehow seen as inappropriate, or perhaps even unfashionable, to recognise the efforts of our country in supporting the Russians. In some ways, this whole incredible, valiant episode was just brushed under the carpet. It was only in the 1990s, after the end of the cold war, that this incredibly heroic band of gentlemen felt that they could put forward their case for a medal.

Commander Eddie Grenfell survived his ship being bombed five times, and being plunged into the icy water where life expectancy was just minutes. He somehow managed to get rescued from the water and then spent many months recovering in Murmansk hospital. He is now 91. Lieutenant-Commander Dick Dykes spent more time in the Arctic convoys than anyone else alive today. Such men are heroes, yet they are still fighting. Portsmouth’s The News has led a campaign for more than 10 years to get a medal for Eddie, Dick and the ever-dwindling band of brave men: only 200 now survive. The News might be the champion, but the cause matters not only to people in Portsmouth.

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

I appreciate the hon. Lady securing the debate and congratulate her on that. My now dear departed uncle was on one of the convoys, and he was thrilled to be awarded the Russian medal, although our brave convoy veterans are not allowed to wear it on the same side as their other decorations. If the veterans can receive that medal from Russia, as they did several years ago with great honour here in London, should they not be honoured by our country?

[Caroline Dinenage]

The hon. Lady makes a super point and underlines the strength of feeling on the subject up and down the country. It is almost impossible to understand why our brave servicemen have been rewarded by other countries and not by our own. It is not only a local issue, as she pointed out. Loch Ewe, from where the convoys were launched, has a museum and an annual service of remembrance, and the Scottish Government are even considering including the story of the Arctic convoys in their national curriculum. When I raised the matter at Prime Minister’s questions in January, the incredible outpouring of support I received came from all over the world and from as far afield as Canada and Australia. The medal has the support of people in all walks of life, young and old, and nowhere more so than among our serving servicemen and women. Next year, a new diamond jubilee medal will be awarded to anyone who has completed five years of service in the military, whether on active service or not. Many of the young people in the armed forces in my constituency have said that, if it is only a matter of money, they will happily forgo their own medal in order to afford one for the Arctic convoy veterans.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Robathan]

No, I will not.

The intention post-war was not to cover everyone with medals. Medals in the UK mean something, and we pay tribute to the people in the Public Gallery who are showing the medals that they won through risk and rigour. My hon. Friend the Member for Gosport mentioned the USSR. Authoritarian regimes and dictators, such a Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, often throw medals around. North Korean generals are covered with medal ribbons. We have traditionally taken the view in this country—hon. Members may disagree—that medals will be awarded only for campaigns that show risk and rigour.

[Mrs Glindon]

Veterans who hold the Russian Arctic medal may think the Minister’s comment about regimes that give away medals is disparaging. I hope that he recognises that. Under Winston Churchill, the Government discouraged the award of the Russian medal, but the fact that it was given and that the brave men who received it were recognised should be mirrored in this country. I should be pleased if he made a different comment from the one that he made earlier.

[Mr Robathan]

I apologise if my comment was taken in the wrong way. That was not the intention. I am not sure when the Russian medal was given to our veterans, but I believe that it was after 1990. There are not many Soviet survivors from the second world war, but generals in the Soviet army were covered in medals, which is not the tradition in this country. That is the point I was trying to make.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Monday 16th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nick Harvey]

The Chief of the General Staff was absolutely right to say that the accommodation that the British Army will need must be of the highest standard. What that will cost will depend entirely on the decisions that are taken on where the Army will go and the state of readiness of any facilities into which we might propose to move them. The figures will emerge when we know where we are sending them and what will have to be built in readiness to receive them.

[Mrs Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

13. What steps the Government plan to take to fulfil the Prime Minister’s pledge to enshrine the military covenant in law.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Liam Fox)]

The Prime Minister’s pledge is being fulfilled through the Armed Forces Bill, which recognises the armed forces covenant in statute for the first time. I will make a further announcement to the House shortly.

[Mrs Glindon]

What assurance can the Secretary of State give the House and members of the armed forces, such as my constituent, 19-year-old Private James Kenny of C company, 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, who has recently returned from active service in Afghanistan, that an independent panel will be set up to report on the Government’s performance in relation to the military covenant?