Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 22 September 2021.
Thank you. Can I thank the Member, too, for her question and her words of support for our armed forces communities and veterans in Wales? And she rightly points out some of the challenges that those who've served may face when they transition to civilian life as a consequence of their experience as well. And that's why we've made sure we've invested in things like Veterans' NHS Wales, including a 35 per cent increase in investment support. But at a local authority level too, we are very proud of the work that our armed forces liaison officers are doing and, indeed, in conversations with counterparts in the UK Government, they've been very keen to look at actually how we're doing that on the ground and how we can have that point of contact and to co-ordinate. So, we do work closely with the AFLOs who are represented on the armed forces expert group, but also through the Welsh Local Government Association. But, as always, we're always keen to build on that support, identify any continuing gaps and make sure veterans have that access to support. And I think one way to do it maybe is to make sure that we share with Members more regularly things like the Veterans' Gateway, so we can all use our own networks to make sure people are aware of that as well.