The next item is the Welsh Conservatives debate on the armed forces, and I call on Mark Isherwood to move the motion. 

Motion NDM7955 Darren Millar

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Recognises the service and sacrifice of people from Wales in the UK armed forces.

2. Expresses gratitude to current and former armed forces personnel for their contribution to Welsh society.

3. Welcomes the appointment of Colonel James Phillips as the first Veterans’ Commissioner for Wales.

4. Calls on the Welsh Government to work with the Veterans’ Commissioner and the UK Government to ensure that the armed forces covenant is upheld in Wales.

5. Believes that the Welsh Government’s armed forces covenant annual reports should be considered by an appropriate Senedd committee.

Motion moved.

One of the presents my wife gave me last Christmas was a book telling the real story of a family entwined in the second world war. This included the following lines: 'Like many returning service personnel, he struggled for years with disabilities and other repercussions that went unrecognised and untreated. Instead, they were encouraged to pick up the reins of family life, get a job, forget the past and look to the future. Even more debilitating than the constant physical pain were the nightmares, reliving the torment and terrors so vividly that he would shout and throw up his arms in an effort to defend himself and awake screaming and flailing in terror. But there was no recognition or treatment then for such mental scars. Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, became officially recognised in 1992, too late for many.'

Speaking personally, I grew up amongst that stoic generation. They were our schoolteachers and shopkeepers, local businesspeople and local service providers, family friends and family members. At least they had the unspoken support and understanding of people in their local communities, most of whom had also experienced war in some way. Of course, this was not the case for the generations that followed. 

Our motion today therefore calls on this Welsh Parliament to recognise the service and sacrifice of people from Wales in the UK armed forces and to express gratitude to current and former armed forces personnel for their contribution to Welsh society. The armed forces covenant refers to the mutual obligations between the UK nations and our armed forces. I led a short debate here in January 2008, supporting the Royal British Legion's Honour the Covenant campaign, concluding that this must be fought until it is won, and welcomed the publication of the armed forces covenant in May 2011, introducing a statutory duty from 2012 to lay before UK Parliament an annual report that considers the effects of service on regulars and reservists, veterans, their families and the bereaved, and to also examine areas of potential disadvantage and the need for special provision where appropriate. 

The Welsh Government and all local authorities in Wales signed the covenant and subscribed to work with partner organisations to uphold its principles. However, although all 22 local authorities have in place an armed forces community covenant, requiring them to have elected member armed forces champions, more is needed. Despite the stated commitment of local authorities and the Welsh NHS to deliver as many tailored services as they can to the armed forces, my casework, and no doubt that of other Members, provides evidence that this does not go far enough.

Speaking here in December 2017, I stated:

'The UK Government's 2017 response to the Defence Select Committee report, which followed the 2016 armed forces covenant annual report, commented on progress in Wales.'

The quote continues:

'In spite of this, however, there has not yet been an independent review of progress and delivery across Wales since the establishment of the covenant.'

Speaking here in November 2018, I again noted that there had not been an independent review of progress and delivery across the whole of Wales since the covenant was established. Hence, our motion today calls on this Welsh Parliament to state that the Welsh Government's armed forces covenant annual reports should be considered by an appropriate Senedd committee, a parliamentary committee, to ensure that ex-forces personnel and their families in Wales are being properly supported. 

I first led a debate here calling on the Welsh Government to establish an armed forces commissioner eight years ago. Speaking here in the November 2017 Welsh Conservative debate on the Assembly cross-party group on the armed forces and cadets inquiry into the impact of the armed forces covenant in Wales, led by Darren Hill as the—Darren Millar as the cross-party group chair—. A genuine slip up. This is a serious debate, I apologise. I called for the Welsh Government to consider the report's 23 recommendations to improve support. As I stated, the inquiry found that:

'in order to uphold the covenant, the Welsh Government should consider the appointment of an armed forces commissioner for Wales to improve the accountability of public sector organisations for the delivery of the armed forces covenant'.

Adding:

'A commissioner would support the specific needs of veterans, represent these to Welsh Government and properly scrutinise service delivery for veterans carried out by Welsh Government, NHS Wales and local authorities. As with the other recommendations in this report, this role has been supported and endorsed by the armed forces community and armed service heads.'

When I raised this again the following year, the Welsh Government told me that this would, quote,

'divert resources from practical services and support.'

Speaking here last November, I therefore welcomed the announcement in the UK autumn budget of the establishment of a veterans commissioner for Wales, who will work to improve the lives and opportunities of the Welsh veterans community, recognising their contribution to UK armed forces.

I was then delighted to welcome the UK Government appointment of Colonel James Phillips as the first Veterans' Commissioner for Wales on St David's Day this year. Colonel Phillips, who is married and lives in Pembrokeshire with four children and a boisterous Welsh springer spaniel, has just completed his own transition to civilian life after 33 years in the army. He served in Germany, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, and has commanded soldiers, sailors and air personnel and worked in NATO, Ministry of Defence, joint and army headquarters. On his appointment, he said:

'The ex-forces community forms an important part of Welsh society and there is a long tradition of service and sacrifice. I will utilise my experience and position to improve the lives of all veterans and their families.'

Joyce Watson took the Chair.

Colonel Phillips will report directly to the Secretary of State for Wales, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the UK Minister for Defence People and Veterans. As the Secretary of State for Wales said:

'The Armed Forces have a long and important tradition in Wales and we are exceptionally proud of our Welsh veterans. Our ex-servicemen and women and their families deserve recognition, support and respect throughout the duration of their service and beyond.'

The appointment of a Veterans' Commissioner for Wales will increase and co-ordinate the support available, and highlights the UK Government's commitment to the welfare of the men and women who serve our armed forces. I stated:

'This new role will help ensure that no veteran will be left without appropriate support, and we wish Colonel Phillips all the best in his new job and look forward to working with him', adding it is vital that the Labour Welsh Government Ministers

'work hand-in-hand with the commissioner as many of the services our Armed Forces community rely on are devolved to Wales.'

I was therefore also pleased to read the statement by the Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Social Partnership, Hannah Blythyn—I'm pleased to see her in the Chamber—that,

'Wales provides a wide range of support for veterans...and we are committed to working with stakeholders to supporting all those who have served.'

She also said that:

'The Veterans’ Commissioner for Wales is a UK Government appointment. We look forward to working with Colonel James Phillips as part of our commitment to veterans across Wales.'

I therefore hope that the Welsh Government will support our motion today, which also asks this Welsh Parliament to welcome the appointment of Colonel James Phillips as the first Veterans' Commissioner for Wales, and to call on the Welsh Government to work with the veterans' commissioner and the UK Government to ensure that the armed forces covenant is upheld in Wales.

The Welsh Government's covenant annual report for 2020 described two main achievements: an established funding provision for Veterans' NHS Wales, which enables veterans with mental health issues to receive appropriate support, and funding the armed forces liaison officers until 2023 to embed covenant guidelines in local authorities across Wales. 

Although the armed forces expert group welcomed the report, it submitted eight key priorities for the Welsh Government to address in this Senedd term, including developing a national plan to implement changes from the Armed Forces Act 2011, committing to permanently fund the supporting service children in education Wales fund, and extending housing priority to cover five years post leaving military service. The veterans' commissioner can play a key role in areas such as these.

It is almost 17 years since I first raised the need for traumatised ex-forces personnel to access mental health care and receive priority treatment. The Welsh Government did eventually launch Veterans' NHS Wales five years later, providing veterans living in Wales with non-residential assessment and psychological treatment for mental health problems, including PTSD. As Veterans' NHS Wales told me last November, they were grateful for their funding increase this financial year to keep the staff employed that Help for Heroes funded for three years. They added, however, that there were several other funding requests in their business case that Welsh Government failed to fund, including NHS-employed peer mentors and increased psychiatrist sessions—currently only one day per month. The veterans' commissioner can therefore also play a role on key issues such as these. Diolch yn fawr.

I call on Alun Davies.

I'm grateful to you, acting Presiding Officer; I'm grateful to Mark Isherwood as well for the way in which he has opened this debate. There is much of his contribution where I would agree with him. I think we all will share the same sense of service to this country and to our people. So, I think we will all recognise the sacrifices of the generation that he himself described in his opening remarks. And I think we all share that responsibility, then, to sometimes put aside some political differences in order to deliver the sorts of services that veterans need and require, and also to support existing personnel and their families.

I actually think that the Welsh Government has moved in a considerable direction over the years in order to deliver that, and I have to say, I think the Welsh Government does have, at the moment, in place significant support structures that are delivering for veterans and their families as well as serving personnel. I think there are things that the Government can do to improve its delivery and its performance, but I also think that we should recognise where the Government has got things right, and sometimes in our remarks, we don't always do that. I hope that, this afternoon, we will again be able to reach that same point of agreement across the Chamber.

Can I say I listened, smiling, listening to Mark quoting his own speeches and actually some of mine, back from the years? Because I was the Minister, of course, who rejected the proposal from Darren Millar and the cross-party group on establishing a commission, and I did it for very good reasons, and I'll outline some of those perhaps this afternoon.

The focus for me and the focus for everybody within the armed forces community in its widest sense has always been on the delivery of services and the delivery of services to people in need. Darren Millar and I, as chair and vice-chair of the cross-party group, work together to ensure that the Welsh Government continue supporting the armed forces liaison officers located in local government and accountable within local communities to ensure that services were delivered. And I was glad to see the Welsh Government, last year, delivering continued funding for that to the WLGA, so that those liaison officers can continue to work with local services, local veterans and the local armed forces community to ensure that the services are delivered in the way that they should be, and I very much welcome that.

I will welcome the appointment of the commissioner, but I don't think this is the right role; I'll be absolutely clear with Members on that. Some Members will be familiar with my contributions on other matters. I'm not convinced that the model of appointed commissioners is particularly good for democracy. I think that this place and the committees of this place have done more to hold Ministers and others to account in terms of children's services and services for older people than either of those two commissioners over the years, if I'm quite clear with Members. There is nothing to prevent a committee of this place undertaking a review and an investigation into the delivery of services to the armed forces community or for the armed forces community. So, the democracy is there and in place, and can work, and, I believe, does work. I don't believe that appointing a commissioner accountable to a Government is the way that you increase accountability. Government should be accountable to us and not the other way round. You don't create accountability by appointing somebody to hold you to account. That's not how democracy or accountability work and certainly it's not what I would ever support. I believe that accountability should happen here. It should happen here in this place, with those of us who are elected holding Ministers and others to account for the delivery of services. That's the democratic model. It's one I support and agree with.

And I have to say that, as we move forward with these matters, I think we do continue to have a very profoundly important agenda ahead of us and I pay tribute to the work of Darren Millar on these matters; he's been a little terrier, working away, leading the cross-party group, and he's ensured that these matters are constantly on the agenda of this place and of Ministers. He certainly kept chasing me when I was in Government and I appreciated and valued the work that he did.

So, I believe that we need to continue to debate these subjects. I would be interested, Minister, in your response, if you could outline how you will continue to report to us on those issues that you believe are the priorities for the delivery of services, and I hope that we will be able to invite you, Minister, again to the cross-party group where we continue to have those conversations. And I hope too that a committee of the Senedd will begin, as we go through the work of this Senedd, to ensure that Ministers here, and others, are held to account for the delivery of services that are delivered to veterans and the whole of the armed forces community in Wales.

I'm delighted to be able to participate in this debate this afternoon. Wales has a long history of providing personnel to the UK armed forces. In many Welsh families, there will be some link with the armed forces, either through relatives or friends, particularly in the Valleys in my region of South Wales East.

That is because Wales provides a disproportionately high number of personnel to the armed forces. Many leave an operational service to return to Wales every year in a bid to make the transition to civilian life. A combination of discipline, good skills and excellent work ethic mean that they are well placed to contribute to the economy. Unfortunately, many will struggle as a result of PTSD and other health issues picked up during their service in the military. Veterans may have health needs, difficulties in accessing housing, and a small number may end in the criminal justice system.

Many veterans will have seen active service over the past couple of decades due to the UK becoming more involved in longer term conflicts and wars of attrition. This has meant rest periods between active service have become shorter, and there has been an increase in stress and pressure on service personnel due to the nature of the tasks performed in those conflicts. A study of 10,000 serving armed forces personnel—23 per cent of whom were reservists—found that 4 per cent reported probable post-traumatic stress disorder, 19.7 per cent reported other common mental disorders, and 13 per cent reported alcohol misuse. Having asked service personnel to put themselves in the line of fire and, effectively, put their lives on the line, we owe it to them to make sure that they have what they need in order to return to normality when they leave the forces.

In the past, veterans were often neglected. This was something that was highlighted by the Westminster cross-party group on veterans, established by the then Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd. They published a series of recommendations more than 10 years ago, and some of those are now in force. So, while things have improved, there is still work to be done. I look forward to seeing the positive impact that Colonel James Phillips will make as the first Veterans' Commissioner for Wales. We owe it to the men and women leaving the armed forces to support them when they come back to their communities. We owe the communities they come back to the support needed to make the most of the valuable skills armed forces personnel possess. And we owe the world a duty to pursue the path of peace at every opportunity. Diolch.

Our country has a proud military history that forms so much of our modern-day cultures and traditions. Our armed forces are the best in the world and have been involved in some of the most infamous conflicts and peace missions across the globe to protect Britain's interests at both home and abroad. I am proud of our nation's history and the role our armed forces play. I have had family and friends who served, fought and died for our country, and I'll forever be thankful for their service and everyone else who has the honour and the bravery to serve our great country.

My constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire is home to the British army in Wales, and I'm extremely proud to represent them here in the Senedd. My constituency and my residents have an honourable and proud military tradition. Our Brecon barracks was first built in 1805, and the under the Cardwell reforms, the barracks expanded to become the home of two battalions. The troops from this barracks will forever live in our nation's memory through their bravery at Rorke's Drift during the Anglo-Zulu war.

My constituency still plays a vital role as the home of the world's finest infantry battle school at Dering Lines army camp and the army camp in Sennybridge, training troops from across the globe to go into conflict zones to protect innocent people. I know that Members from across this Chamber here today recently visited the army camps to see the training that our servicemen and women undertake. It was also great to note that the Ministry of Defence has recently announced that the barracks will continue to play a vital role within our military infrastructure and will be used by the British army for decades to come.

Servicemen and women serve their country with distinction, and they experience some things that we in this Chamber just simply could not comprehend. This leaves many of them suffering from the negative effects of war. There are about 250,000 veterans in Wales, and it is estimated that 4 per cent of the veterans will suffer from some kind of mental health issue, often as a result of experiencing combat zones.

I am very thankful and pleased that both the UK and Welsh Governments have worked together and have announced a new Veterans' Commissioner for Wales, Colonel James Phillips, who is based in Pembrokeshire. I would like to pay tribute and thank the Deputy Minister for her openness in working with me to help deliver this vital post.

With that in mind, I do believe that it is now time for the UK Government to seriously look at increasing the number of servicemen and women in our armed forces. Our troop numbers are vital for global peace and helping to maintain democracy across the globe. Our armed forces are diversifying with new methods of military technology due to the changing nature of warfare, and I personally believe that the UK Government should increase spending on and investment in our military personnel and infrastructure. Global Britain has a vital role to play, and I, for one, believe that our military has a bright future ahead. We should all in this Chamber be eternally grateful for the security and peace that our military provide to our families and to our great country.

I thank the Welsh Conservatives for tabling today's motion. Each day is a learning day, because I found out that Alun Davies was in Government, and I associate with the former Minister's comments earlier in his contribution with regard to scrutiny by this Senedd and the committee work it should be doing. Every day might be a learning day, but it's also different, because I find myself surprised at agreeing, mostly, with Mark Isherwood this afternoon in his opening remarks and what he said.

But this is a subject area that is at the forefront of all of our minds at the moment, as those brave women and men of the armed forces keep us safe. Acting Presiding Officer, I would like to take this opportunity to specifically highlight the role that our armed forces have played throughout the coronavirus pandemic. To say that they've gone above and beyond does not fully capture the difference they have made, and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

As I said, I agree with the former Minister's comments on the role that the Senedd can play and the committee work that it needs to do, and I would wish to see that happening. But I do welcome the role of the veterans' commissioner and I would also be grateful for the opportunity to meet with Colonel James Phillips to talk about veterans in my own constituency of Alyn and Deeside and to hear his views on how this Senedd can best support them. 

Acting Presiding Officer, I'm proud to be an honorary member of the Shotton and Deeside branch of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Comrades Association. Last weekend, I was pleased to speak with representatives from Labour Friends of the Forces during the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno—an excellent conference, if I might add. And I would like to pay tribute to the Labour Friends of the Forces and the work they do to enrich that link between Labour members and our armed forces, and I will certainly be joining them as a friend and member.

Acting Presiding Officer, in closing, I just wish to conclude that, every year, on Remembrance Day, we quite rightly stop and we quite rightly pause to remember those who have sacrificed so much to preserve the freedoms we cherish. But throughout the year, as Members of this Senedd, of this Welsh Parliament, we should have those who serve and those who have served in our minds as we go about our daily responsibilities. That is a commitment I will make today. I will continue to do all I can to champion our veterans and our armed forces, like Darren Millar, like Alun Davies, like James Evans, and like everyone who has spoken in this debate. I ask colleagues from across the Chamber, each and every single one of you, to join me and make that commitment today. Diolch yn fawr.

It's a great honour to take part in this debate this afternoon and to give my thanks to our servicemen and women, past, present and future, for their incredible sacrifices that allow me and all of us to stand here today. Because, make no mistake, without our armed forces, there would be no democracy. We would not be debating our support for our armed forces; we'd be under the yoke of some dictator or another. You only have to turn to the news to see how fragile our democracy is. The hell Putin is unleashing on the poor people of Ukraine could possibly be our future, if not for the service of the brave men and women in our armed forces, men and women who are prepared to put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms. As Winston Churchill once said,

'Never was so much owed by so many to so few.'

That is as true today as it was back in 1940. But, sadly, we tend to forget that debt. We go on with our daily lives, ignoring the plight of our service personnel and our veterans, allowing our defence budgets to be cut to the bone, supplying our troops with inadequate equipment, because of the false belief that the world is at peace and armed forces are an anachronism of a bygone era. We ignored Putin's expansionism, stood idle as troops levelled Grozny, invaded Georgia, annexed parts of Ukraine in 2014, shot down a passenger jet, and continued killing civilians in Donbas. And now, Putin is hell-bent on restoring the USSR.

Today his sights are on Kyiv, but what about tomorrow? Is Chisinau in Moldova next? What about Tallinn? We don't know, which is why brave Welsh men and women are on the Estonian border, forming a red line against Putin's expansionism, hoping, like the rest of us, for a peaceful resolution, but prepared to put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms. We must acknowledge their service and ensure that our debt is repaid with interest. Far too often we have failed our veterans, which is why I believe the appointment of a veterans' commissioner marks a turning point. I hope the appointment of Colonel James Phillips will put a stop to the disregard of the armed forces covenant, put a stop to our veterans becoming homeless, ending up in prison or on psychiatric wards. We rely upon our service personnel in times of conflict and strife. They should be able to rely upon us when they have put down their weapons for the last time. We have to provide priority housing, education and welfare, and make their transition into civilian life as seamless and as painless as possible. We owe them this at the very least.

I hope Members will support our motion and send a clear message that this democratic institution stands firmly behind our defenders of democracy. Diolch.

Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this debate. I have to confess that I find debates on veterans and the armed forces difficult, not because I am a pacifist, but because of my own experiences with members of my family who served and who suffered horrors that I cannot comprehend whilst serving, but then, having served, those members of my family being neglected by the state entirely. And I'm afraid that the same pattern is being seen time and time again. It appears that the rates of suicide amongst veterans are increasing. Alcohol abuse is rife, and the lack of mental health support is a disgrace.

I would like to focus on one element in particular, namely homelessness amongst veterans. I visited a young family in my constituency this week. There were lively and adorable young children in the household, with one parent working in the health sector and the other parent a veteran who had served in Afghanistan and is now suffering from PTSD. This wonderful family was homeless and was having to live with the grandmother in an overcrowded home. Unfortunately, this is far too common a story. It's shameful that a state expects its young people to go out to face untold horrors, but then neglects them once they’ve left the armed forces. Veterans face huge challenges as they come to terms with their experiences, and the very least that could be expected is that they should have a roof over their heads when they return to what people call 'civvy street'. I look forward to seeing the new commissioner, therefore, making this issue a priority. Thank you very much.

My grandfather served in the first world war, and he was serving in all the worst places with the highest numbers of casualties. He was in the Royal Artillery, which was, obviously, bringing the guns up to the front with the use of horses, which illustrates how it is very important that the military has to change in line with new technology; we cannot be fighting wars with horses any longer. He never got the mental health support that he needed. He had at least two mental breakdowns during the war, and, after the war, he still didn't get the support he needed. In the end, I'm afraid to say, he committed suicide, much to the, obviously, loss of my grandmother and my mother.

I just wanted to talk about the relevance of the military today in the current situation we face with war in Europe, because there is a role that I think the military can and should be playing to assist all those countries surrounding Ukraine who are struggling to deal with so many people having fled the military war. There has been an outpouring of generosity from Welsh people to Ukrainian families; £25 million has been donated already to the Disasters Emergency Committee, which has been matched by the UK Government, and the UK Government is also providing medical supplies. But a lot of the donations in kind are coming from the voluntary sector.

It's difficult for us to comprehend that Poland is now providing a safe refuge to 1.5 million people who are absolutely destitute. They've just fled with what they can carry, and as it's geographically closer than the numbers who've taken refuge in Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, I think we need to concentrate on trying to assist the people of Poland to relieve some of the stress on them, because the mayor of Warsaw clearly has appealed to other countries to share the heavy lifting required to provide appropriate accommodation for traumatised children and families and the elderly. I really do think that it is quite shameful that we in this country have only offered 4,000 visas to enable people to come to Britain, and that's without even discussing how they're going to get here. Literally, people have left with nothing.

We know that some 7,000 households in Wales have already openly offered to host families fleeing from the war, but even when the Home Office gets round to giving them visas, how are these people supposed to get here? It isn't good enough, and I'm sure the British public doesn't want us to go on being bystanders to this tragedy. So, there really is a role for the British military to play in speeding up the process, and enabling people to arrive. It's one thing for Rhys Jones and his friends to drive from Conwy to Ukraine. These are farmers, people who know how to fix their vehicles when they break down and are perfectly competent at getting to difficult places, but most of the people in my constituency who I know have offered their homes are simply not in that situation. These are people who, if they break down in a car, would rely on emergency roadside assistance, and that simply is laughable, isn't it, in the context of going to Poland to bring back people so that they can have a place of safety here in Wales.

I think that we really do need to mobilise the logistical units of the British Army to bring these people back to Wales, because the logistics are key to a functioning military in armed conflicts. That is why the Russians have got into such difficulty, because they haven't been able to sort out how they're going to feed their troops, never mind re-equip them with ammunition. This is what enabled us to win the Falklands war 3,000 miles away—because the logistical regiments were really, really organised. There are no logistical regiments based in Wales, but we do have the 157 royal logistical regiment, which is a reserve logistical regiment, which is based in Cardiff with squadrons in Cardiff, Swansea, Carmarthen, Haverfordwest and Queensferry. These people could all be mobilised if their employers would co-operate. They've been trained on how to get people out of conflict zones and they can bring them safely by land and then by sea so that people can reach Wales more quickly. This is a really good role for the military in this current situation, so I do hope that we can pursue that with the UK Government, because, obviously, there's got to be liaison with the Polish Government to enable them to go there at all.

And finally, Laura Anne Jones.

Diolch, acting Presiding Officer. I'd first like to declare that I'm still a county councillor on Monmouthshire County Council. I want to thank Darren Millar for tabling today's debate. Being from a family with a history of serving in the armed forces, it's a great chance to join my colleagues and, I hope, many others across the Chamber in welcoming our first ever Veterans' Commissioner for Wales, Colonel James Phillips, and also to recognise the enormous contribution our veterans have made and continue to make in Wales. 

Our new commissioner is a man who recently left the army after serving 33 years, as my colleague has outlined, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland and the Balkans. With his vast experience in the armed forces, I'm sure he will bring knowledge, experience and understanding to some of the specific issues that veterans face and represent their needs to the fullest. I've been proud to serve on a council in Monmouthshire that signed up to the armed forces community covenant scheme as part of the Conservative UK Government 2011 initiative to promote a greater understanding between the military and the general public. During my time there as councillor on Monmouthshire County Council, I was honoured to be its armed forces champion. In my region of Gwent, all five local authorities have achieved gold now on the defence employer recognition scheme, and all five have offered the guaranteed interview scheme for the armed forces community, including Monmouthshire. This scheme is a great way to thank and recognise the work that the local authorities do, and for the innovative and thorough ways that they now incorporate veterans in everything that they do now going forward.

It is not just for veterans that we see much-needed support now being given, but thanks to SSCE, Supporting Service Children in Education in Wales, who work hard to co-ordinate research and compile evidence on the experiences of service children in education to ensure their needs are well understood, we see this service benefiting children of serving personnel. However, the lack of data that we have on service children in Wales is actually very worrying, and the absolute need to compound this evidence is so necessary so that we can support those families with service children far better than we do already. We need to know where they are and to pick out where their families are to give them the support that they need. So, it is vital and I hope that our new commissioner will look to address this and ensure that there is up-to-date data on PLASC going forward, which is the place that it needs to be. This will not only benefit veterans, as I've said, but also the children of serving personnel.

The liaison officers, like the incredible Lisa Rawlings in my own Gwent region, play such a vital role in Wales, and I really hope to see their contracts extended or made permanent, to work alongside the veterans' commissioner, as I think that will be an instantly productive team to get the very best for veterans where information can flow both ways. The liaison officers have been pivotal in creating hubs and doing many, many things to help veterans, as was outlined just now by the Member for Meirionnydd. The veterans hub in Caerphilly, run by Kelly Farr and Lisa Rawlings, is having evidenced positive outcomes and is truly a one-stop shop for veterans—similarly in Newport and across many other areas in Wales. Fantastically, we're now seeing one in Monmouthshire as well. These hubs are great examples of best practice that I hope the veterans' commissioner will look to roll out across Wales. There's still an awful lot more to do for our veterans, whether it be ensuring access to NHS dentists for veterans upon leaving the armed forces or for better data collection on our military children. And we must keep striving for better. And I want to thank my colleague Darren Millar for constantly banging the drum for veterans in Wales, and letting people know that, although we have come a long way, we need to do a lot more. 

There's been great work, as has already been mentioned by Jack Sargeant, from the cross-party group, including other Members, cross-party, like Alun Davies, as well as those in our own party who have always been steadfast in their support for the armed forces community in Wales. Five per cent of the UK's population are serving personnel. However, in Wales this figure is doubled to 10 per cent of the Welsh population being serving personnel. And we have around 140,000 veterans living here. It is estimated that 4 per cent of service veterans will suffer some kind of mental health issue, such as loneliness, welfare or addiction problems, often as a result of experiencing combat zones. And veterans are also vulnerable to homelessness, as we know. Currently there are 6,000 homeless veterans in England and Wales.

It is due to these specific issues that still exist in our country that the appointment of a veterans' commissioner has been called for by the Welsh Conservatives since 2014. The new commissioner will act as that voice for ex-servicemen and will be working to enhance support, scrutinising and advising on Government policy. There will be no place for any Government to hide now and I hope that this support for veterans will only be enhanced going forward. I look forward to seeing how Colonel Phillips settles into his new role and I have no doubt that he will work night and day to make Wales the very best place for veterans to live, raise their families and retire, and I urge everyone in this Chamber to support our motion.

I call on the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership, Hannah Blythyn.

Diolch, acting Presiding Officer.  I very much welcome the opportunity to respond to today's debate on behalf of the Welsh Government in support of those who have served and those who continue to serve.

As a Government, we are very much committed to building on our work supporting serving personnel, veterans and their families in Wales. It would be remiss of me not to start today by talking about the terrible siltation in Ukraine and to reiterate how the Welsh Government stands in support and solidarity with Ukraine and with the Ukrainian people, and is providing £4 million in financial and humanitarian aid to help provide critical support to those in desperate need. 

And many of the points that Jenny Rathbone raised are, obviously, a matter for the UK Government, but I am aware from recent correspondence that there are British troops at readiness to support the humanitarian effort in and around the situation in Ukraine. I think it's also important that we recognise that the current situation may be having an adverse effect on some of our veterans with service-related conditions, arising from their time in war zones, and our Veterans NHS Wales service and a wide-range of support are available for them to access, so perhaps we will recirculate them to Members to make sure they are able to signpost constituents, should they need it.

As a Government, we are committed to supporting the armed forces community and very much recognise their sacrifices. This year, we will honour those who served in the Falklands, 40 years on from that conflict. The First Minister will lead a national commemoration service in June, and I will be supporting additional events, including a cycle ride with veterans, starting off from the national Falklands memorial in Cardiff.

The contribution of our armed forces to our nation is something we all appreciate and never forget, whether thousands of miles away or here at home. And we have all seen, and are all incredibly grateful for, the support our serving personnel have provided during the COVID pandemic, working with the NHS. They've delivered vital supplies, vaccinations, driven ambulances and epitomised the ethos of service not self.

The Welsh Government has welcomed the appointment of Colonel James Phillips as the first Veterans' Commissioner for Wales. As Members will be aware, Scotland and Northern Ireland both have established commissioner roles who work to improve the opportunities for their respective veteran populations, and we will of course support that intention here in Wales. 

I actually had the opportunity to meet Colonel Phillips informally at the St David's Day dinner at the 160th (Welsh) Brigade—the dinner that James Evans tried to tell me was cancelled. I don't know what he was up to there. [Laughter.] I don't know whether they'd just told James it was cancelled. [Laughter.] But in all seriousness, whilst I was able to meet Colonel Phillips informally a couple of weeks ago, we extended an invitation to join us here in the Senedd to learn more about what we are doing in Wales, both as a devolved Government and also how we work together in this place in common cause in support of our veterans and their families.

Indeed, not only can we, I feel, reflect with pride on the part that partnership working has played in our progress in supporting veterans in Wales, but also the cross-party consensus and shared sense of purpose that persists within this place.

Welsh Government officials have already approached UK Government counterparts to arrange regular engagement opportunities where we can discuss how the veterans' commissioner's appointment will add value to the support already provided in Wales within our established structures, and the future needs of our armed forces community.

We're committed to and have a proven track record of working collaboratively to support or armed forces and veterans community in Wales, from our armed forces expert group to our now widely renowned armed forces liaison officers. We very much focus on putting our finite resources into front-line support and services, including: the continued investment in Veterans NHS Wales to make sure veterans have access to the mental health treatment they need; supporting veterans into employment, including a service leaver and veterans employment event in November last year, with the Career Transition Partnership and 160th brigade, something we're keen to build on this year and plan another event; as well as introducing the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative in November 2020, to provide ex-service personnel with the option of joining the civil service through guaranteed-interview schemes. This is something that we'll be able to provide an update on in our annual report this year, demonstrating our firm belief that veterans have much to offer after their service.

Upholding the principles of the armed forces covenant are fundamental to our work in Wales. We recognise that working with our key partners and now the commissioner and other nations in the UK will help build on the range and scope of support provided. Our network of armed forces liaison officers are unique in the UK and, as we heard, they're embedded within our local authorities and are absolutely essential to covenant delivery across Wales. They continue to deliver key support, including running mental health and first aid courses and training, and establishing veterans hubs, like we've heard from Laura Anne Jones today, in local authorities areas, and providing that really important support on the ground where it's needed. And they also offer a mechanism to take some of those local issues and then to actually feed them to the armed forces expert group for us to be able to plug any gaps that might still exist in services and support.

As a Government, our approach is very much to develop policy in consultation, partnership and on a peer-to-peer basis. Our veterans scoping exercise, which is currently being implemented, engaged with over 1,000 veterans, families and organisations across Wales. It's a level of engagement that we would all expect from any role that represents the views of veterans, and we will obviously clearly support the commissioner to ensure he can best engage with the veteran population in all parts of Wales.

As always, there's always more work to do, and we're absolutely committed to building on this support, particularly in the area of supporting service children, and we're working, at the moment, on a priority around getting that PLASC data and improving that. It's something that we recognised in the scoping exercise, and it's very much a priority for us moving forward now.

One of the things that we do look forward to also discussing with the new commissioner, Colonel Phillips, is the support for those leaving service and returning to Wales. We remain the only country in the UK without a resettlement centre, an issue that we are actively engaged with the UK Government on at present. So, I'd obviously welcome any support for that from Members across the benches in the Chamber.

If I could just turn now to point 5 in the motion and the Welsh Government's annual report, and I'm very happy to give consideration as to whether the suggestion in the motion represents the most effective means of providing scrutiny of the report. The support available for the armed forces community is captured annually in the covenant annual report, and whilst we aren't currently mandated to, we always try to have an annual debate, and that report is laid in the Senedd and scrutinised by members of the armed forces expert group as well. Their feedback is actually included within that report to help inform our priorities moving forward. We also contribute to the UK Government's covenant annual report, which is also subject to scrutiny before the UK Parliament, and I'm very happy to take up the invitation to come along to the cross-party group again in the future.

Acting Presiding Officer, I'd like to start as I began in that collegiate fashion and say the Welsh Government is supporting this motion today and we look forward to continuing to work together with the veterans' commissioner, with all stakeholders and partners, to build on the achievements to date, and to move forward in the interests of our veterans and their families in Wales.

I call on Darren Millar to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Presiding Officer for the time being. Can I just thank the Minister for her generous response to the debate and to all those who've contributed so eloquently to this discussion? I'm very pleased to hear that the Minister will be considering our proposal. I hope that by that she means that the Government will be supporting our motion. I think it is to our credit as an institution in this Senedd and here in Wales that we've worked together on a cross-party basis over many years to try to support the lot of our veterans here in Wales, and we must never forget some of the statistics that have been bandied about, which is that Wales makes a much bigger contribution to the armed forces than any of the other constituent parts of the United Kingdom. I think that's why they are the best in the world, frankly, because there are many Welsh men and women who serve so excellently in them.

I also want to congratulate Colonel James Phillips on his appointment. I think he's an excellent choice as our very first Veterans' Commissioner for Wales. This is something that we've campaigned for on the Conservative benches, not just since 2014, but actually 2011—it was in our manifesto back in 2011 for the then Assembly elections. And we've been persistently shaking the tree, and I'm really pleased now that the UK Government, working with the Welsh Government, has identified this fine candidate to fulfil the role. I think his recent experience will no doubt be invaluable in ensuring that the needs of veterans are represented very, very well indeed.

And we can see the sort of impact that our veterans have even here in the Senedd, can't we? Because we've got people who have served in the armed forces who now work even within some of our teams. My colleague Joel James has a young lady called Hannah Jarvis, formerly serving in the armed forces—she was recently on the Ukrainian border, taking medical supplies there, using her experience, her knowledge of logistics, to be able to fulfil that role. I want to pay credit to her and others who are continuing to have that public service attitude that Hannah and others have. [Interruption.] Yes.

That's particularly interesting to know, and do you therefore think that there really is an important role for logistical regiments to play in assisting the Polish people and others, to get our part played by bringing people from Ukraine as soon as possible?

I certainly do, Jenny, and I was very struck by your contribution to today's debate, and fully endorse your calls on that front. I was also struck by your personal story, your family story, of just how not having the right support in place can be so costly for our veteran community and their loved ones. Thank you for sharing that. I know it must have been difficult for you.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, of course, referred to some of his family's experiences too, and this is why we've got to make sure that the armed forces covenant is honoured. It's been pleasing that we've made progress in recent years. I think it's 12 years ago now that Veterans NHS Wales was established. It's great that we've put more fuel into the tank for that organisation to be able to meet the demands that have been placed upon it, and of course we've made other strides as well, with the excellent armed forces liaison officers that people like Laura Anne Jones referenced in Gwent and elsewhere across the country. We've got things like the defence employer recognition scheme, and I must declare an interest in that respect, because I'm a board member of the Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Association for Wales, which actually runs that scheme. But it is really excellent. We should be encouraging all public sector employers in Wales to be able to adopt the scheme and go for those bronze, silver and gold awards. I hope there's going to be a platinum award at some point in the future.

Can I thank the Minister also for the continued work that she's been doing with the expert group? It's been a pleasure to be able to participate in the expert group, and I think this again shows the way that we're working collaboratively on a cross-party basis for the benefit of our armed forces community and veterans here in Wales. Because that is not normal—it's not normal to invite people from opposition parties into groups like that, but you've continued to allow me to sit on there to bring appropriate challenge in those meetings, and I welcome it very much indeed.

Jack Sargeant made reference to the fact that a former Minister, Alun Davies, had contributed to today's debate. Of course, your own father, Jack, was a very fine Minister for the armed forces during his tenure. He was a great champion of people in the armed forces, and indeed our veterans community, so I want to pay tribute to him. And we must not forget either that there are many third sector organisations doing incredible work to support our armed forces, not just the Royal British Legion and SSAFA, but other smaller organisations like Woody's Lodge, Change Step in my own constituency, and indeed we've got a growing number of veterans' sheds around Wales, something that started, actually—. That movement started in my own constituency in Clwyd West. So, these are things that we've got to be very proud of, but there's always going to be more work to do. We want to stand shoulder to shoulder with you, Minister, and the Welsh Government to make sure that we deliver for our armed forces here in Wales, and on that basis I'm delighted that you're supporting our motion. We will all work, I'm sure, closely with the new commissioner to make sure that our veterans in Wales get a better deal. 

Right, the motion, therefore—. Let's start at the beginning. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does anybody object? The motion is therefore agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36. 

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.