Monday Volume 551 22 October 2012 No. 53 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 22 October 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 679 22 OCTOBER 2012 680 Mr Hammond: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He is House of Commons absolutely right. As we build our Army reserve to a level of trained strength of 30,000, it will be essential that we Monday 22 October 2012 capture the skills of regular Army leavers, not just to help us with the numbers but because of the resilience The House met at half-past Two o’clock that they will give to reserve forces. I promise him that that is what we will do. PRAYERS Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab): Following Labour’s [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] lead, employers such as John Lewis and O2 will guarantee to interview veterans applying for jobs. Will the Minister Oral Answers to Questions introduce this scheme to all public sector employers? Mr Hammond: One of the tasks that we have asked Lord Ashcroft to undertake is a discussion across DEFENCE Government and the wider public sector to see what more we can do to ensure that service leavers have the The Secretary of State was asked— very best opportunities in relation not only to employment Service Leavers (Support) but access to benefits and social housing—all the other things that they need. I assure the hon. Gentleman that 1. Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab): What from my knowledge of Lord Ashcroft I am sure he will recent assessment he has made of the support given to do this extremely thoroughly. service leavers when re-entering civilian life. [123711] The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond): Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con): My right Providing transitional support to service leavers is a hon. Friend knows very well, not least from the excellent high priority. Those who have completed a minimum report produced by the Under-Secretary of State for duration in the armed forces are offered a framework of Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for South West support services. Of those who make use of this framework, Wiltshire (Dr Murrison), that one of the biggest problems over 90% of those seeking work find employment within facing returning servicemen is mental health problems, six months of leaving the armed forces. However, we not only when they first get back but for very many believe we can do more, and I announced in September years thereafter. What extra steps can the Secretary of the appointment of Lord Ashcroft as the Prime Minister’s State take to make sure that we alleviate the worst special representative for veterans’ transition. He has a effects of these mental disturbances? long-standing interest in the armed forces and a track record of support for veterans’ charities. He will review Mr Hammond: As my hon. Friend will know, the the support available to service leavers making the excellent report produced by my hon. Friend the Under- transition to civilian life and make recommendations Secretary is being taken forward by the Government. for improving that support and for better co-ordination We will continue to work closely with the Department across Government and with service charities. We look of Health and others to look at how best we can forward to receiving his recommendations in due course. implement the remaining recommendations in that report. Hazel Blears: I am grateful to the Secretary of State for that reply. Over the next two years, 9,000 brave men Mr Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire) (Lab): May I and women who have put their lives on the line for our congratulate the new ministerial team who have found country will be coming home from Afghanistan. They their places on the Front Bench today? It is only a will need help to find a home and retrain to find a job, shame that that comes at the expense of their dedicated and support for their families. At the moment, they are and highly effective predecessors, who deserve the thanks often pushed from pillar to post around local authorities. of everyone in all parts of the House. If there were a veterans champion in each local authority Many of our armed forces are currently being made who could co-ordinate those services, they could make redundant. One of the worries is that the Ministry of the system work effectively for those veterans coming Defence seems to be trying to save money by sacking home. Will the Secretary of State consider the campaign experienced people very close to their full pension for veterans champions in each local authority area and entitlement. I have been contacted by angry and give it his support? disappointed family members who feel very let down by this approach. Will the Secretary of State confirm that Mr Hammond: The right hon. Lady is absolutely in future rounds of service redundancies he will take right that local authorities are a vital part of this into account proximity to pension qualification when equation. I am pleased to be able to tell her that more deciding whom to make redundant? than 150 local authorities so far have signed up to the community covenant. I will certainly make her specific Mr Hammond: I am extremely grateful to the right point to Lord Ashcroft and ask him to consider it very hon. Gentleman for his generous comments on the carefully in his deliberations. retiring ministerial team, and I am sure that he will Bob Stewart (Beckenham) (Con): Will my right hon. appreciate that my new Front-Bench colleagues will Friend assure me that maximum effort is being put into give him an equally hard time in future. trying to recruit to the reserve Army people who have As the right hon. Gentleman knows, proximity to been well trained in the armed forces but are leaving, so pension point is not and cannot be a determining factor that we do not lose their expertise? in selection for redundancy. Wherever we set the bar—we 681 Oral Answers22 OCTOBER 2012 Oral Answers 682 have made some reductions in the immediate pension shareholding issues experienced by BAE and its associates? point for those being made redundant—some people Does he not understand that this has caused a lot of will, unfortunately, fall just short of it and it is inevitable unease among them? that they will feel a sense of injustice. The legal advice that I have received is that it would not be appropriate—we Mr Hammond: I am not quite sure what the hon. would be subject to challenge—if we used proximity to Gentleman means by saying that I did not take account pension point as a criterion in redundancy selection. of shareholding issues. The Government made it clear that we understood the reasons why the companies were Mr Murphy: There will be disappointment at that attracted to a possible merger and that we were willing answer, not least in the pension justice for troops campaign, to listen to the arguments for it, subject to setting out one of whose high-profile supporters is Sergeant Lee clear red lines about the UK’s national interest with Nolan, who served our country in Iraq, Bosnia and regard to national security, our technology base and Kosovo, and who was sacked just 72 hours before protecting jobs. It subsequently became clear that the qualifying for his full pension. So disgusted is he that he UK’s red lines could not be satisfied while simultaneously has returned all six of his medals to Downing street in satisfying those of the French and German Governments. protest. Will the Secretary of State at least enter into It also became clear—I think that this is the point of the all-party talks, with the aim of guaranteeing that no hon. Gentleman’s question—that not all the shareholders one currently serving in Afghanistan will be affected in on either side of the transaction were satisfied that it this way? It is simply wrong and not good enough for made sense. someone who has served our country bravely and for many years in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other theatre to Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con): I strongly be sacked so close to qualifying for their full pension support my right hon. Friend’s red lines, but I put it to entitlement. him that the palpable failure of BAE’s business model— which, basically, focused only on defence—and the Mr Hammond: Before the right hon. Gentleman climbs shortcomings in its current management should not be any further on his high horse, I remind him that we are allowed to drive us into an unsatisfactory situation, and having to make reductions in the size of our armed that, such is the value of the assets that it controls, we forces to deal with the legacy that we inherited from the may in the long run have to take a less than entirely Labour party. Nobody who is serving on operations or hands-off approach to the company. who is on post-operational leave is eligible for selection for redundancy. The right hon. Gentleman knows that Mr Hammond: As my hon. Friend would expect, the we are deeply sympathetic with regard to those very Ministry of Defence has a close working relationship difficult cases in which people missed their immediate with BAE Systems as our largest supplier.