Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Earl Howe on 28 February (HL569) and on 17 January (HL4523), whether a Head of Service who retired after the 5 star rank went into abeyance and who was informed that he would be treated in exactly the same fashion as a 5 star, is now no longer to be so treated; and if so, who made this decision.

We have made no changes to the agreed five-star privileges accorded to the former Heads of Service, further to those I provided in my Written Answers of 30 November 2017 (HL3468), 12 December 2017 (HL3864), 19 December 2017 (HL4126), 17 January (HL4523) and 28 February (HL5695).