The Labour party is committed to the Stormont House agreement and the leader of the Labour party, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), made it clear in Northern Ireland last week that the rule of law must be central to our approach to legacy in Northern Ireland.
Returning to amendment 1, last week I met with the charity Salute Her at Forward Assist, who shared with me statistics showing that up to six out of 10 women serving in the military have experienced some form of sexual harassment or abuse. This is an issue that disproportionately affects women of lower ranks; it is a harrowing issue, and these women deserve real justice. This amendment would ensure the Armed Forces Bill provides appropriate support, protection and access to justice for our forces. Serious crimes will be tried in civilian courts when committed in the UK unless the Attorney General has consented for such crimes to be tried under courts martial.
Moving on to amendment 2, a significant part of this Bill relates to the armed forces covenant and the introduction of a legal duty for public bodies to have regard to its principles. I am proud that my local authority, Barnsley Council, is not only one of the leading signatories of the covenant but has achieved the gold award in the defence employer recognition scheme. More needs to be done to end the postcode lottery of support and introducing a legal duty in this Bill is a welcome step, but we believe it can go further not only in the duties themselves—currently limited to healthcare, housing and education—but in who they apply to as well.
While the Bill creates new responsibilities for a wide range of public bodies, from school governors to local authorities, central Government are not included. The Government are notable by their omission from these legal responsibilities; they should show leadership in at least holding themselves to the same standard they are asking others to follow. Our amendment would place the same legal responsibilities for the armed forces covenant on central Government as their current drafting requires of local authorities. Twelve of the UK’s leading military charities wrote an open letter to MPs last week sharing their concern that the new legal duties in the Bill do not cover the “full range of issues” currently affecting our armed forces community. They are urging the Government to widen the Bill’s scope to make sure that greater protections are given in areas such as employment, pensions, social care and immigration. I hope that the Government will today listen to those charities and support our amendment.
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Through new clause 1, we are calling on the Ministry of Defence to recognise its duty of care to British service personnel who are subject to legal action arising from overseas operations. It simply cannot be right that so many families have been put through the trauma of long-running investigations with little to no legal or welfare support from the MOD. Labour repeatedly attempted to resolve this issue with amendments to the Bill that became the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021, but Ministers did not accept this important duty as part of that Bill. We are asking the Government to reconsider this issue and ensure that they deliver on their responsibilities to members of our armed forces.
New clause 2 would establish a comprehensive review of the number of people who were dismissed or forced to resign from the armed forces because of their sexuality, and to consider appropriate forms of compensation. The institutional and cultural discrimination against the LGBT+ community is a shameful feature of our not-so-distant past and remains a serious issue today. I am proud that the last Labour Government abolished the ban on homosexuality in the armed forces in 2000, and I believe the Government’s new policy of medal restoration for those veterans is a very welcome first step. But it simply cannot be right that so little further work has been undertaken to seek to right this wrong, so we ask Ministers now to consider the restoration of ranks and pensions, and other forms of compensation to appropriately honour those who have served our country with courage and distinction, irrespective of their sexuality.
New clause 3 is calling on the Government to create a representative body for our armed forces. It has been clear for some time that the armed forces need independent advice. There are many issues on which members of the armed forces need representation, in matters such as welfare and pay, which is why Labour is calling for a representative body for the armed forces, to work with the MOD to further support service personnel. The US and Australia already have similar models embedded in military command structures, and the model is used successfully in this country in the police force, through the Police Federation. Our armed forces give their lives for us. Ministers should seize this opportunity to give them a real voice.
Finally, new clause 4 calls on the Government to conduct a formal review of the standards of mental health care available for service personnel. The Government are currently missing a range of targets on mental health care for people who have served. Forces personnel face a wait of 37 days for a face-to-face appointment to be offered through the transition, intervention and liaison service. The target is 14 days, so that is a wait of more than double the target time period. They then face another unacceptable wait for treatment. The latest figures available to us show an average wait time for treatment of 70 days, which is a jump from 57 days in 2018-19. After six months of having left the service, veterans then access mental health support through the responsibilities of the NHS, which of course face serious pressures and considerable waiting times. Ministers cannot ignore this issue or seek to outsource accountability and responsibility on matters such as these. Action needs to be taken nationally to deliver, and we believe the review established by new clause 4 would form a key basis for turning around the crisis in mental health services.
There are welcome steps in this Bill, but in delivering on the special responsibility we have to our armed forces personnel, we believe the Government can and should go further with this legislation. Labour believes that the armed forces covenant represents a binding moral commitment between the Government and our service communities. This legislation is an opportunity to strengthen and improve it and, through Labour’s amendments, to go further and ensure that we tackle all areas of disadvantage.