Thanks to the Conservatives for bringing today's debate on the important subject of the armed forces covenant. We agree, in UKIP, that a high priority should be given to the welfare of both people serving in the forces and veterans. We are also keen to see the encouragement of cadet activity. So, we broadly share the enthusiasms of the Conservative group in this area, and we commend the energy of Darren Millar in getting together a very knowledgeable group of people as his advisers on the cross-party group, which he has been involved in setting up. I know that Mark Isherwood has been very active as well. The group has come up with some sound recommendations, which we fully support.

We also acknowledge that the armed forces covenant has been well supported in Wales—to a large measure, down to the efforts of the Welsh Government. So, I am going to be supportive today of their efforts as well. Now, I remember Carl Sargeant, in a debate a few weeks ago on housing matters, admonishing me somewhat because he felt I wasn't supportive enough of what the Welsh Government was doing in that area. Now, I slightly disagreed with Carl on that point, as I did on a few points, in fact, because I felt it was my job, as an opposition Member, to question him on things rather than just offer phrases of support. But I think it is generally acknowledged that, in the sphere of the armed forces covenant, we have made good progress in Wales, and I think Carl's efforts were a big factor in that. So, I would like to acknowledge that today.

Now, the point of the cross-party group is to ensure that things continue to progress, that we all focus on the right priorities regarding armed forces and veterans' issues, and those priorities have been agreed by the cross-party group in close concert with groups representing the armed forces and veterans themselves. The Welsh Government also has its own multi-agency expert group; so, it's good to see that everyone is working collaboratively in this area.

Housing is a recurring factor in several of the priorities that have been expressed by the CPG report. We do have a problem with veterans becoming homeless. It is currently estimated that some 7,000 ex-service people are homeless in the UK. We don't know how many there are in Wales, and there are hopes expressed in the report that the rough-sleeping count could capture some important details regarding this. So, hopefully, we can use this data in future to obtain crucial information in this area.

There are also issues around the provision of housing for serving and former members of the armed forces and their families, which have been alluded to earlier. These form part of the priorities in the CPG report, and we support the report's objective of making it easier for services families to obtain good housing. Another important provision is the pupil premium, and there are stiff challenges over mental health provisions, which must be addressed, to which Mark Isherwood was referring earlier.

In terms of the amendments set out today, we are happy to support all of the amendments. The Government point out their own progress, which we are happy to acknowledge. Plaid Cymru have looked particularly at the homelessness issue, and they call for an update on the implementation of the national housing pathway. We also support that call. Plaid also want measures put in place to obtain strong data on the homeless figures. They want the Government to publish the figures collated in the national rough-sleeping count. Again, that would be a good step forward, and we fully support that call.

So, to summarise, we have made good progress in implementing the armed forces covenant here in Wales, and I do believe, in many respects, we compare well with England, but we need to keep on the ball. So, this report is very welcome, and UKIP are very keen to support the recommendations of the report.