6. Will the Minister provide an update on the work of the Veterans' Commissioner for Wales? OQ58474

The Veterans' Commissioner for Wales is a UK Government appointment and is therefore not directly accountable to Welsh Government. However, the commissioner is an important advocate for veterans in Wales. I have met him a number of times and look forward to working in partnership with him for the benefit of our veterans.

Thank you for that, Deputy Minister. I'm sure that you're pleased, as I am, that the work that he is doing is well under way, and I'm sure that you'd welcome Sarah Atherton to her position in the UK Government, as the Minister for veterans. You did say that it is the responsibility of the UK Government, but there are matters that are devolved here, and hopefully we can get some answers on those—I know that the Government here don't like answering on devolved issues. So, can the Deputy Minister outline what discussions you've had with the Deputy Minister for mental health around providing mental health support for veterans to make sure that, when they do ask for support, it is there, and supported, for them in their time of need? Thank you, Llywydd.

I thank the Member for his question. My point, in terms of the Wales veterans commissioner is that it is an appointment of the UK Government, and therefore not directly accountable to the Welsh Government. As I said, I have met him a number of times, it's still early days; he came into post in June and it's a part-time position. In fact, I was with the veterans commissioner just this morning at our armed forces expert group, where Darren Millar was in attendance too, on behalf of the cross-party group, and so we are committed to working very closely. And also, I've arranged for the commissioner to meet a number of my Government colleagues to understand better about those areas that are devolved in which we support veterans, such as health and education, and their families as well, and how we can work collaboratively and move forward, so that we make sure that we can build on the work that we've already done. And we look forward to introducing our armed forces annual report in the next month to this place, and we'll be able to debate that.

But, in Wales, we are very pleased to have Veterans NHS Wales, which supports veterans and is unique to Wales. Actually, just this morning at the armed forces expert group, we discussed how we can make sure that there is initial support, and there are some research projects going on at the moment that we are contributing to around making sure that, out of hours, how veterans can access those services. There is a helpline already that they can access, but it's how we can make sure that the first point of contact is a positive one, when they go, perhaps, to their GP surgery or a service, but also considering out of hours. So, we're proud of the work that we've done in Wales, and we're committed to working together to do the best by our veterans and their families in the service community in Wales.