Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of applications for payments under the (a) War Pensions and (b) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme have resulted in the applicant (i) withdrawing or (ii) not taking steps to progress their claim.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
This information is not held in the format requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications for payments under the (a) War Pensions and (b) the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme were made in each year from 2010.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The number of disablement claims registered under the War Pension Scheme (WPS) and the number of injury/illness claims registered under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) in each financial year from 2009-10 to 2020-21 is presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Registered Disablement1 claims under the War Pension Scheme and Registered Injury/Illness claims under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, by financial year2, numbers- 1 April 2009 – 31 March 2021
Financial Year | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
|
War Pension Scheme | 13,819 | 12,330 | 11,840 | 11,878 | 12,149 | 11,043 |
|
Armed Forces Compensation Scheme3,4 | 5,302 | 6,527 | 7,305 | 7,774 | 8,699 | 8,964 |
|
Financial Year | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | Total |
War Pension Scheme | 10,496 | 9,065 | 8,998 | 8,865 | 8,441 | 4,774 | 123,968 |
Armed Forces Compensation Scheme3,4 | 9,246 | 9,087 | 9,457 | 8,842 | 8,059 | 5,300 | 94,562 |
Source: War Pension Computer System (WPCS) and Compensation and Pension System (CAPS)
1. Disablement claims include both First and Second/Subsequent claims.
2. By financial year of claim registered.
3. Injury/Illness claims registered by the service person. Survivors’ Claims are not included in this response.
4. These figures exclude registered events which end up being cancelled or withdrawn. However, there were 1,703 registered initial injury/illness claims which were pending as at 31 March 2021, many of which may end up being removed.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of applications for payments under the (a) War Pensions and (b) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme are declined at the (i) initial application stage, (ii) the appeal stage, and (iii) at the tribunal stage.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2021:
Of the 107,882 disablement claims cleared at initial review under the War Pension Scheme (WPS), 34,965 (32%) were declined. During this period 11,748 tribunal decisions were made. 7,016 (60%) of which were rejected by the Tribunal and found in the Department's favour.
Declined initial reviews include rejected first and second/subsequent disablement claims and maintained assessments at second/subsequent claim. Declined tribunal decisions include disallowed disablement entitlement appeals and maintained assessment appeals. Both exclude reduced assessments.
Please note, there is no internal appeals process under the WPS and as such an answer to question (ii) cannot be provided.
Of the 94,426 injury/illness claims cleared under the AFCS, 29,615 (31%) were initially rejected. Of the 18,921 reconsiderations cleared under the AFCS, 13,993 (74%) were declined. During this period 7,550 tribunal appeals were cleared. 3,561 (47%) of which were rejected and found in the Department's favour.
Declined reconsiderations and tribunal appeals includes disallowed and maintained claims but excludes reduced awards.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2022 to Question 102705 on Veterans: Medical Examinations, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of that answer with the ability of veterans to receive information on the professional qualifications of medical assessors during tribunal under judges' directions.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Ministry of Defence has been working with the Tribunal Presidents to establish an approach to releasing information about Veterans UK medical advisers' professional qualifications to the Tribunals that is compatible with data protection legislation. Agreement has been reached that medical advisers will be identified by a pseudonym and information on GMC registration and qualifications will be provided.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what professional qualifications Veterans UK medical assessors are required to hold.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
When Medical Advisors are recruited the professional qualifications required are:
Valid licence to practice medicine in UK
Registration with the GMC
Current re-validation certificate
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which aspects of the National Space Strategy his Department is responsible for.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is the Department responsible for co-ordinating civil space policy and strategy across Government and co-authored the National Space Strategy with the Ministry of Defence. It is also the sponsoring department of the UK Space Agency and UK Research and Innovation, which are key agencies for the delivery of the National Space Strategy.
BEIS jointly co-chairs the newly established Director-level National Space Board with the Ministry of Defence to oversee and drive delivery of the National Space Strategy's ambitions and commitments across Government. The strategy will be delivered jointly by several Government Departments and with the support of our thriving space sector: businesses, innovators, entrepreneurs, and space scientists.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Tribunal process.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The First-tier Tribunal War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber is administered by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, to ensure that it is independent of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). As such, this is not a question which can be addressed by the MOD.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that service personnel are aware of the minimum criteria of five years reckonable service for claiming a war pension.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
There is no minimum reckonable service requirement to qualify for a War Pension.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the minimum criteria of five years reckonable service for claiming a war pension came into force.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
There is no minimum reckonable service requirement to qualify for a War Pension.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether those who served in the armed forces for less than five years and paid into the Armed Forces Pension Scheme prior to the minimum criteria of five years reckonable service coming into force are entitled to pension payments.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Armed Forces Pension Schemes are non-contributory, Service personnel do not 'pay in'. If the Service person did not meet the minimum reckonable service requirement for the pension policy in place at the time of their discharge, then there would be no pension entitlement.