§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if letters and parcels from services personnel on active service overseas are carried free of postage; if letters and parcels for families to service personnel at BFPO addresses are carried free of postage; if he will call for a report about postal services offered free of charge to US services personnel; and if he will make a statement. [24032]
§ Mr. Ingram[holding answer 18 December 2001]The Review of Operational Welfare, the results of which my right hon. Friend the then Minister of State for the Armed Forces announced on 29 March 2001,Official Report, columns 731–32W, concluded that the best method of maintaining communication between personnel deployed on operations and their families is to provide a 561W comprehensive package across a range of media which is common to all operational theatres. Consequently, the new arrangements we introduced in April provide a full package—free 'blueys' (forces aerogrammes), free 'e-blueys', other mail and parcels at forces concessionary rates (which are considerably lower than normal rates), publicly funded telephone calls (20 minutes per week) and internet access. We have provided some £60 million of additional resources over a four year period to support these enhancements. As part of the review we did examine the US model of welfare support to deployed forces—as well as canvassing the views of several hundred British service personnel on operations.