Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many veterans had received a veteran ID cards as of (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February, (c) 1 March, (d) 1 April, (e) 1 May, (f) 1 June, (g) 1 July, and (h) 1 August 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Under Phase One, since 2018, Veterans ID cards have been issued to all Service leavers. The below table details the number of Veteran ID cards that have been issued as at the 1st of each month so far in 2023.
Month | Total |
January | 60,970 |
February | 62,092 |
March | 63,705 |
April | 65,143 |
May | 66,736 |
June | 68,246 |
July | 69,877 |
August | 71,320 |
The Government will begin phase 2 of the Veterans Card roll-out by the end of the year, which will extend the scheme to pre-December 2018 Veterans.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total cost to the public purse was of phase one of the veterans recognition scheme.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her to Question 183283 on 9 May 2023.
Under Phase One, since 2018, Veterans ID cards have been issued to all Service leavers; the cost of this is not separately recorded. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) project team responsible for developing and implementing the new digital verification service and issue of ID cards for Veterans who left service prior to 2018 currently consists of 4.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) civil servants and 6.0 FTE contractors in total. This number will fluctuate during the current financial year depending on skills requirements.
The MOD has allocated £1.5 million to phase two of the project for financial year 2023-24. Expenditure of £1.07m in financial year 2022-23 was funded by the Cabinet Office when the project was led by the Office of Veterans Affairs.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much from the public purse was spent on the distribution of veteran ID cards in 2023, as of 14 September 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her to Question 183283 on 9 May 2023.
Under Phase One, since 2018, Veterans ID cards have been issued to all Service leavers; the cost of this is not separately recorded. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) project team responsible for developing and implementing the new digital verification service and issue of ID cards for Veterans who left service prior to 2018 currently consists of 4.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) civil servants and 6.0 FTE contractors in total. This number will fluctuate during the current financial year depending on skills requirements.
The MOD has allocated £1.5 million to phase two of the project for financial year 2023-24. Expenditure of £1.07m in financial year 2022-23 was funded by the Cabinet Office when the project was led by the Office of Veterans Affairs.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many full-time equivalent staff were working on the veterans recognition scheme on 1 September 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her to Question 183283 on 9 May 2023.
Under Phase One, since 2018, Veterans ID cards have been issued to all Service leavers; the cost of this is not separately recorded. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) project team responsible for developing and implementing the new digital verification service and issue of ID cards for Veterans who left service prior to 2018 currently consists of 4.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) civil servants and 6.0 FTE contractors in total. This number will fluctuate during the current financial year depending on skills requirements.
The MOD has allocated £1.5 million to phase two of the project for financial year 2023-24. Expenditure of £1.07m in financial year 2022-23 was funded by the Cabinet Office when the project was led by the Office of Veterans Affairs.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department supports (a) training, (b) services and (c) activities of The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust Veterans’ Places, Pathways and People programme grant recipients.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The Ministry of Defence supports the work of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust in delivering the Veterans' Places, Pathways and People (VPPP) programme, which is funded through the Veterans' Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund.
To date, the VPPP programme has awarded £9 million to 14 major projects. This programme supports projects to encourage the development of safe, welcoming places for veterans to go in their local area, support for staff and volunteers in organisations that support veterans to access good quality training, and to connect veterans into wider pathways, including for mental health support and treatment.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the adequacy of the delivery of the War Pension Scheme.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Delivery of the War Pension Scheme is reported on monthly against a set of agreed Key Performance Indicators and is reviewed by wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) at Functional Delivery Boards. The Scheme is also monitored by the Defence Business Services Corporate Board. A dedicated complaints team monitor and track issues that arise with an internal 'lessons identified' process to drive improvement.
Ways to improve the delivery of the War Pension Scheme for the benefit of customers are constantly being sought, and around £40 million is currently being invested by the MOD in an ongoing Transformation Programme as part of the Service Delivery Contract to digitise existing paper-based processes.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183286 on Veterans: Identity Cards, how many veteran ID cards have been distributed by local authority area as of 1 July 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
It is taking time to collate the required information to answer the hon. Member's Question. I will write to her when the information is available, and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on which private military companies are operating alongside the Russian Armed Forces inside Ukraine.
Answered by James Heappey
Other than Wagner Group, the Ministry of Defence is unaware of any other entities that we would categorise as Private Military Companies operating alongside the Russian Armed Forces inside Ukraine.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much (a) artillery, (b) small arms, (c) anti-structure weapons, (d) anti-tank weapons and (e) anti-air ammunition his Department has provided to Ukraine since February (i) 2022 and (ii) 2014.
Answered by James Heappey
Since 2022, UK military aid to Ukraine has included over 200,000 artillery rounds, approximately five million small arms ammunition (including grenades and mortars), over 2,500 anti-structure munitions, over 12,000 anti-armour weapons, and over 1,500 anti-air weapons.
No lethal military aid was provided to Ukraine between the period 2014 to December 2021.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel have been trained by UK troops under Operation Interflex.
Answered by James Heappey
To date, nearly 18,000 Armed Forces of Ukraine personnel have been trained by the UK under Op Interflex.