Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will ensure that all Gurkhas who retired from the Army before 1997 are given a full army pension.

All Gurkhas who retired from the Army before 1 July 1997 qualified for an immediate pension under the 1948 Gurkha Pension Scheme (GPS) after only 15 years' service. In contrast, before 1975, British soldiers who served less than 22 years received no pension. This means Gurkhas were receiving pension payments for over 25 years before most British soldiers of the same rank and length of service qualified for any payments.

For most Gurkha veterans the 1948 GPS provides a pension at least as good, and in many cases better, than that given to their British counterparts with identical periods of service. Our view is that the 1948 GPS is a very fair scheme.