HC Deb 21 February 2000 vol 344 cc1227-8
7. Mr. Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale, East)

If he will make a statement on the development of family-friendly working practices within the armed services. [109402]

The Minister for the Armed Forces (Mr. John Spellar)

The key family-friendly policies for the services are to provide adequate time for family life and, during deployment, the ability for family members to communicate with each other. We have reduced the number deployed on operations, introduced post-operational tour leave and a bonus payment for those experiencing the greatest separation, and increased the welfare telephone allowance from three to 20 minutes per week. That is an impressive record of achievement.

Mr. Goggins

I want to acknowledge the tremendous sacrifices that our armed services staff and their families make on our behalf. What steps is my hon. Friend taking to encourage staff to take up their new entitlements to parental leave and to time off in family emergencies, both of which were recently introduced by the Government?

Mr. Spellar

Armed forces personnel are entitled to parental leave, as allowed for in the parental leave directive. It is service practice, operations permitting, to allow personnel to take paid annual leave to attend childbirth. On family emergencies, the armed forces have an excellent compassionate system in place that is specifically designed to deal with serious family emergencies; it can include both paid leave and free travel back home.

Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury)

In that seemingly impressive list of measures to help families, where would the Minister put the £11 million cut in the budget for repairing married quarters, coming as it did just after a study had shown that the backlog of repairs is much worse than was previously thought?

Mr. Spellar

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman drew attention to the backlog of repairs, which was overlooked by the Conservative Government, who, in the rushed sale of property to Annington Homes, underestimated the amount required to bring the properties up to category 1 by £112 million. That has led to the stretching of the programme to 2005. We have been able to put some additional money back into the programme in the past few weeks. The hon. Gentleman should really look to the people who previously occupied the Government Benches. I regret to say that he backed out on that argument in the end.