Speeches by Carns.

“The public sector equality duty has been in force for 15 years and its duty of due regard is working well; we seek to replicate that as we move forward. From my perspective, the amendment risks constraining rather than strengthening that approach. As I have said many times, this is a step in the right direction. It bro…”

“Once we analyse the tapestry of veterans support, I would like to come to a solution on the English veterans commissioner to align with and amplify what we do on Valour. I think that Valour will take 36 months to be properly embedded in our local councils, with the structures and data network in place. It has taken us …”

“The minimum requirement at the moment is to stay in line with the covenant principles. That needs to be balanced with the broader local issues that each local authority is facing. That will never be standardised because our local communities are different, from Cornwall to the north-east, Scotland and Northern Ireland.…”

“Sir Andrew is an exceptionally good man, and few are more knowledgeable than him on veterans matters. We have a position where, in some cases, veterans are seen as victims, but we have no central body that understands the totality of veterans issues across the United Kingdom. Head Valour is therefore coming into place …”

“I will continue and then give way in a minute. We have taken more action in the past 20 months than the Conservatives managed in the 14 years before that, with more than 1,200 major defence contracts, 86% of which have been awarded to British-based businesses. The Conservatives argued that we should spend 2.5% of GDP o…”

“I thank the hon. Member for allowing the intervention. I cannot describe the laughing and bickering that is going on right now, when we have troops in harm’s way. There has to be a level of seriousness, whether we are discussing the nuclear deterrent or investment opportunities and mistakes made. We have troops in harm…”

“I thank hon. Members for their contributions on clause 2 and the new clauses. They are based on the right intent, and Members are trying to do the best by our serving and ex-serving population. I will leave the script and step back to look at where we have come on this journey. Under the previous Government, the Office…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank everyone for our progressive and balanced debates so far. I am delighted to introduce clause 2, which extends the armed forces covenant legal duty, delivering a manifesto commitment to strengthen support for our armed forces. The clause will amend par…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his contribution. We are moving in that direction; the national armaments director is providing professional oversight now and is looking at reviewing the system. I think we can all collectively agree on whether we have got value for money over the past 14 to 20 years. We need to ma…”

“I disagree—the postcode lottery will get better and start to standardise over time. There is a multitude of problems with the covenant that the Bill will try to solve, one of which is education, and communication to our own armed forces personnel about what it is and what it is not. That is a problem for the Ministry o…”

“We are zeroing in on an important point here about the standardisation of information before people state a preference for the civilian or the service justice systems. That is something we need to take away, have a look at and ensure is standardised across the entire system, so that people have a clear insight and unde…”

“It is my firm belief, after speaking to a multitude of people involved in the system, that preference is required. I think we heard evidence yesterday that we need to standardise the information and education given to people before they state a preference. We have taken that away to double-check that it is standardised…”

“We heard from various panel members, specifically yesterday, that they welcome a lot of the measures in place. It is worth stepping back to look at where we have come from. In December 2022, after a couple of high-profile cases that were completely unacceptable, we took a large chunk of the military crime elements and …”

“The cost of the measures will be included in our future programme. I do not think there will be an exceptionally large cost for our Strategic Reserve plan. The costs will be around a communication plan to ensure that our reservists stay engaged in defence. That will come out in the defence investment plan.”

“There are a couple of things we are looking at, and a couple of things that we have done. First, as this moves forward and the duty expands, there will be Covenant champions in other Government Departments—I will hand over to the team in a minute as they can perhaps provide a bit more detail. Hopefully they will be peo…”

“I think it would be really dangerous to make an estimate. I will wait till the ruling is complete.”

“The measures in the Bill are about our ability to use reservists, not the compensation paid to reservists when they are serving. We therefore do not expect a significant impact from the Milroy case. However, we are still examining the impact of the ruling on all employment of reservists.”

“On due regard, different local areas have different pressures on local government. I always go back to this: from my perspective in the armed forces community, and we must ensure that our veterans and armed forces personnel are never disadvantaged because of their service, but local councils also have some really diffi…”

“I think it will be internal within MOD.”

“Measurement of effect is going to be critical. The nine measures in the Bill go some way to delivering it. From my perspective, if you were to harmonise the maximum recall liability of all our ORs, we would start to see an increase in the Strategic Reserve numbers. That is the first and easiest way to measure effect. A…”