10. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The Armed Forces

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 7:17 pm on 11 November 2020.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 7:17, 11 November 2020

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I thank everybody who's taken part in this very good-natured debate? There have been some excellent contributions, and, as always, I have to remind myself that the armed forces and the contribution that they play to modern Wales as well as our history has been absolutely tremendous. I'm particularly interested to hear, again, more about people's family tales, including the Minister's, with Uncle Tom; Angela Burns talking about her father's contribution to military service; and of course the stories that we heard from Mark Isherwood in his opening comments and remarks on the debate, and, of course, the gentleman from Alyn and Deeside—I think his name was Gilbert. I didn't quite catch his surname; I think it was Gilbert Butler. What a remarkable man. People who fought for our country, people who have made a huge sacrifice, some of them still with us—heroes that we can honour and choose to honour as much as we can—but too many of them, unfortunately, fallen and not here today. And that's why it's important that on this Armistice Day we remember them all.

Can I just thank the Minister for her generous response to the debate as well? I think there has been some excellent collaboration between the Welsh Government and the UK Government in terms of furthering the support for the armed forces family and for veterans, and it's been wonderful, as chair of the cross-party group on the armed forces, to have been invited to participate on the Welsh Government's expert group. It was your predecessor, Alun Davies, former Minister for the armed forces, who contributed to today's debate, that opened the opportunity for that, and I think the engagement has been really, really positive and it has delivered significant benefits for our armed forces community.

We know that nothing's perfect, there are still improvements that we can make, but there has been a tremendous amount that has been achieved in recent years, particularly for our veterans with the devolved responsibilities that the Welsh Government has. You reeled a few of them off a few moments ago, with the veterans railcard this year, the great place to work initiative, which guarantees veterans the opportunity to have an interview if they've got the right skill set for civil service jobs. These are really positive developments, as was, of course, the additional funding that you announced earlier in the year for our armed forces liaison officers, who do critical work on the front lines in our local authorities and working with health boards as well, trying to join everything up. So, I want to pay tribute to you, as a Government Minister, for that work. Of course, there's always more to do. We know that Veterans' NHS Wales is in need of further capacity to be able to increase the services that it provides to our veterans to cut those gaps down in waiting times, and we know that there's further work on the UK Government side that needs to be done as well, particularly in terms of maintaining the military footprint here in Wales, which of course has been squeezed over the years, but we are standing shoulder to shoulder with you as a Welsh Government to want to maintain that military footprint. We recognise the significant economic benefit that Wales derives from it.

It's very poignant today that we celebrate—or mark, rather—the hundredth anniversary of the internment of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster. It was interesting to hear the full details of that story from Caroline Jones—a very moving account, I think, of just how that body happened to be interred in Westminster Cathedral. And there will be story after story that people can share about individuals who suffered, who are unsung heroes, who are out there, but that one in particular, I think, was very moving for me.

Congratulations to Monmouthshire on achieving its gold employer status in the recognition scheme for the armed forces. I just hope that many other local authorities will follow that lead, and other parts of the public sector will follow that lead too. You've done an excellent job as an ambassador for the armed forces as the armed forces champion, Laura, and it's great to have someone else with a deep interest in the armed forces here as a Member of the Senedd.

Just in closing, I want to turn to the COVID response contribution that our armed forces have made in recent months. There was a huge amount of logistical support that the armed forces provided to the Welsh Government over the course of the pandemic. We've seen them distributing PPE equipment to front-line services. We've seen them mobilising in order to deliver the Dragon's Heart Hospital. We've seen them supporting our Welsh ambulance service with their response, even delivering a baby, we were told at our cross-party group, on one of those calls. And, of course, they've been heavily involved in rolling out and ramping up the testing capacity as well. So, I want to take this opportunity, in closing, just to thank them not just for their service over many, many centuries to Wales, but also for their service today, their live service around the country in supporting us with this new crisis that is amongst us, and to pay tribute to each and every one of them. We will remember you, not just today, but at all times of the year, and we will continue to do what we can on a cross-party basis in this Senedd to make sure that we uphold that very important armed forces covenant that we've all subscribed to. Thank you.