Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the contribution of the Minister of State for Defence of 9 March 2015, Official Report, column 47, on Armed Forces (Service Complaints and Financial Assistance) Bill, whether his Department has reached a decision on whether to transfer the outstanding unresolved complaints within the existing service complaints system to the remit of the new Service Complaints Ombudsman.

The assessment of whether a budget increase will be required is still under way; we are working with the Service Complaints Commissioner to fully consider the staffing and resource implications of amendments to the draft legislation for the Ombudsman's office.

We are urgently considering the transitional arrangements to the new system, including whether to transfer the outstanding unresolved complaints from the existing Service complaints process to the new system.