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Veterans plenary
Meeting of Veterans plenary - 28 March 2007
DS SEC SPEECH FOR 2007 PLENARYGood morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this, the seventh Veterans Plenary, I am Rear Admiral Peter Wilkinson. As Defence Services Secretary, I am the MOD officer responsible for the policy behind the Government’s Veterans Programme. At this point the Minister and I will do something of a box and cox to explain to you how the programme is going; but you will have to wait a little longer to hear from him. He will cover our future plans and give you some thoughts about our longer term strategy while I will first say something about what we have achieved over the past year. Let me state immediately that when I talk about what we have achieved, I am not talking solely about the Ministry of Defence. The Veterans Programme has from the first been about partnership. You have heard already about the key role of the main ex-service organisations: their time, efforts and ideas have been essential to the successes that have been achieved. You have also heard from Ms Winterton about the importance of the partnership with other Government Departments. The delivery of real improvements for veterans depends on the effective working of all these interested parties.
And I think it is fair to say that this has been a successful year. As a result of our combined efforts, I believe our partnership has taken important steps forwards, bringing improvements not just to the quality and variety of the services we provide, but also to the ways in which we reach out to our Veterans. I am conscious that expressions such as ‘partnership’ or the ‘joined-up approach’ are scattered like confetti through policy documents these days, but I consider this one to have real substance. This partnership is no marriage of convenience – as so many joint ventures can be. It is a partnership in the truest sense of the word: despite our differences in approach [or perspective], we both share the same fundamental commitment, to ensuring that those who have served our country receive the care, support and recognition they deserve – and only by working together can we deliver this.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, when announcing the Veterans Day national event winner on March 13th, that “there is nothing that we will ever do that can adequately thank the millions of men and women who have served their country... for what they have done for us”. However, 2006 was a memorable year and I hope that, as representatives of the five million veterans alive today, you will take satisfaction from measures [replace with ‘the progress made over the past year’] that will bring real value to the veterans community. There are a good number that I could mention but let me restrict myself to those that have struck a particularly chord with me.
In 2006 we held our first ever Veterans Day. This was a landmark event, raising the national profile of our ex-servicemen and taking the first steps towards establishing this as a core national celebration. [I am sure that many of you who are here today, and have attended the plenary before, will have been involved in some capacity with the events that were held across the country last June]. We are grateful to you for all your support. I was at the park next to the Imperial museum and also saw much of the press coverage – both regional and national. I thought this gave a good account of the effort that so many organisations and local communities across the nation put into celebrating the contributions that veterans have made to protecting the nation and its interests. We have ambitious plans to build on this start but I will leave the Minister to tell you something of his vision for the 2007 Veterans Day.
Continuing however on the theme of recognition, the Chancellor announced only two weeks ago a further extension of entitlement to apply for the HM Armed Forces Veterans Badge and the UK Merchant Seafarers Veterans Badge; eligibility now includes all those who served up to Dec 31 1984, thereby closing the gap a further quarter of a century from where we stood this time last year. My team’s latest figures for the Arctic Emblem, which recognises the special contribution of those who served north of the Arctic Circle, are now up to 8,000 Veterans
I have also been moved to see the National Memorial Arboretum grow visibly in stature as the trees that populate it mature, providing a living memorial to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. I am sure it will be enhanced with the unveiling of the Armed Forces Memorial. This will form a key national landmark that, for the post 1945 era, will maintain the longstanding national commitment to not forget those who have died in the service of this country. The memorial is scheduled to be dedicated, we hope, by the Queen later this year. If you and those you represent have not visited this moving place, then I certainly encourage you to do so.
2006 has also illustrated graphically the extraordinary span of our responsibility for recognising Veterans. Plans to commemorate the passing of the World War One generation have required us to consider a wide range of views on how most appropriately to demonstrate the nation’s gratitude for the sacrifices they made for us nearly a century ago. At the same time, with due sensitivity, we have had to deal with the feelings and wishes of the gallant old gentlemen and their families.
With all this in mind, it was announced on Veterans Day last year that on the death of our last known World War One veteran resident in the UK we will mark the passing of the generation with a National Memorial Service to be held in Westminster Abbey, recollecting the original ceremonies for the return of the Unknown Soldier. That is hopefully still some time away, and for the present it would be entirely wrong to be so focused on their passing that we do not give them proper recognition while they are still with us; within the limits of what is possible for veterans of so many years, we have taken such opportunities as we can to demonstrate our gratitude, our respect, and indeed our sheer amazement at the experiences that a man like Henry Allingham can still so clearly recollect.
Separately, with the passing of the Armed Forces Act in November 2006, a pardon was given to those who were shot at dawn between 1914 and 1918 for desertion and other similar offences. This was not to deny the offences that had been committed. Rather it was to recognise that, given the terrible circumstances of frontline service in that war, execution was not a fate that they deserved. For those families who still feel burdened by shame at the fate of a father or brother, the pardon will hopefully have brought some degree of closure.
However, our efforts to ensure recognition of our veterans would ring hollow if we were not also working to ensure that proper support is available for those who need it. Again this is a joint venture and I am grateful for all the work that charities like yours are doing, in conjunction with government, to push forward the frontiers of the support we provide. You will have heard something of the steps taken under this pillar of our work from earlier speakers and I hope this will have given you an insight into the sort of initiatives that we have been pursuing.
During the last twelve months it has been increasingly recognised that there should be a more unified approach to the provision of support. For example, we recognise the need, so far as possible, to enable the charities to approach those who may need their help. So, where newly discharged Service Leavers consent, we will be passing their details through a small number of ‘gatekeeper’ charities to those whose support they may need.
Finally, I would like to mention the very encouraging progress being made to reduce homelessness amongst our ex-servicemen. I was encouraged to note the interim findings of a study on homelessness undertaken by the University of York which indicate that ex-servicemen now represent just 6% of the non-statutorily homeless population in London, a significant improvement over the 22% figure that we faced in 1997. We cannot afford to let up our efforts however and would like to bring the figure down even lower; however, the progress made is nonetheless a credit to the joint efforts by charitable organisations and Government to address the plight of the homeless, among veterans.
I am also very encouraged to hear that Mike Jackson House will be open by this summer. It is a hostel for homeless ex-servicemen in Aldershot, and will be run on the same lines as the Galleries hostel, which opened in 2003. The facility is a tangible example of government and the voluntary sector working together, drawing lessons from previous projects. It will be equipped, amongst other things, with disabled facilities, a computer suite and interview rooms. The land was gifted by MoD and I am delighted that the Department for Communities and Local Government agreed to cover the build cost of some £2 Million and with the involvement of English Churches have made it a true 3-way partnership. It is a real step forward to see the project close to completion in a major Army garrison area where a significant proportion of vulnerable leavers are likely to be discharged.
Let me now hand over to the Minister who will tell you about our plans for the future.
