Gulf Trust (Hansard, 30 March 1993)

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current amount of money in the Gulf Trust; how much money has been paid out by the Gulf Trust in the last 18 months; and how many people have been provided with assistance by the Gulf Trust.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
The current amount of money in the Gulf Trust, including accrued interest, is £2,854,570. The amount of money paid out by the Gulf Trust in the last 18 months to reimburse the benevolent funds for payments in respect of Gulf related cases is £193,661. Some payments made over the period have yet to be reimbursed from the Gulf Trust. 159 individuals have so far been provided with assistance from the trust together with four charitable bodies and three charitable funds.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has concerning the criteria for payments to be made by the Gulf Trust; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
The criteria for payments made by the Gulf Trust are set out in the trust deed. The objectives of the trust are the relief of financial need of the beneficiaries and to relieve sickness, distress or any other physical or mental disability of the beneficiaries insofar as they have arisen or may arise by virtue of the military and other operations relating to or in connection with the Gulf conflict. Provision may also be made for such other charitable purposes for the benefit of the beneficiaries as the united services trustee as trustee of the fund in its absolute discretion, thinks fit.
To be a beneficiary a person must be a member of Her Majesty's armed forces involved in military and other operations relating to or in connection with the Gulf conflict; the civilian personnel attached to or accompanying such members of the armed forces; and their respective dependants. Individual applications for assistance from the Gulf Trust are handled by the service benevolent funds working within the terms of the Gulf trust deed, their own trust deeds and charity law and they apply their normal, established policies in making payments.