Veterans (Hansard, 11 February 2002)

§ Dr. Moonie

Since the announcement of the veterans' initiative and my appointment as Veterans Minister in March of last year, we have been working closely with representatives of the veterans' community to improve the services we offer them. As an early step, we transferred the War Pensions Agency to the Ministry of Defence to deliver a more coherent service to war pensioners. We are committed to maintaining the agency's programme of continuous improvement to the services it provides to its customers, recognised recently in the award of the UNISYS Management Today Excellence Award. In particular, we are working closely with interested veterans' organisations to identify areas where we can bring further improvements in service through closer co-operation with their own activities in support of veterans.

We have also recognised the concern of many veterans and of people more widely that the final resting places of our war dead should be properly respected. In particular, we have moved to address the desecration of maritime war graves by some divers. We have designated 16 wrecks in UK waters as controlled sites and five in international waters as protected places. All military vessels lost in the Falklands conflict will be designated. We have made clear that we will prosecute where we have jurisdiction and are pressing for greater international protection of such wrecks.

The objective of seeking improvements in the support offered to those who have left the services, through closer partnership with the veterans' organisations, has been a key theme of the work of the ministerial task force and the forum of veterans' representatives. There have been two meetings of the Veterans Forum and, as a result, nine working groups have been formed to give practical expression to the initiative's core themes of partnership, identify recognition and care. These working groups are looking at improvements in areas such as resettlement of the most vulnerable service-leavers, communication with veterans, and the educational material available in schools with regard to the achievements of our veterans. The working groups include representatives from the veterans' organisations, as well as from other interested Government 4W Departments and the devolved Administrations. Initial meetings have been held to agree the objectives for each working group and they will report back to me on their progress in time to give an up-date to representatives of the veterans' community at the second Plenary Forum on 17 April 2002.

Subsequently, the Veterans Forum, which includes the executive of the Confederation of British Service and Ex-Service Organisations (COBSSEO) and senior officials from across government, is due to consider the progress of the working groups when it meets on 1 May 2002. The ministerial task force will then consider the way forward, taking account of the views expressed by the veterans community, at our meeting on 15 May and, in July, I will provide a progress report through the Defence Secretary to the Prime Minister.