Written questions by Cadbury.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the amount of compensation available to LGBT veterans following the LGBT Veterans Independent Review, published in May 2023.

The Government acknowledges the historic policy prohibiting homosexuality in the Armed Forces was regrettable, wrong and completely unacceptable. The treatment of LGBT Serving personnel between 1967 and 2000 was wholly unacceptable and does not reflect today’s Armed Forces. All 49 recommendations made in Lord Etherton’s report have been accepted and to date, 32 of the 49 recommendations have already been implemented demonstrating the Government’s commitment to supporting our veterans and the LGBT+ community. Full details about these recommendations and the non-financial restorative measures already available can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lgbt-veterans-apply-for-restorative-measures. Lord Etherton’s report demonstrated the broad range of ways that personnel were impacted by the Ban. The financial redress scheme has been designed with this in mind, intending to provide a sense of closure to all those affected. Defence has worked with experts across Government to design an appropriate scheme where applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, enabling appropriate distribution of the available funds. I hope this helps explain Defence’s position and reassures you that we are committed to welcoming back LGBT veterans into the Armed Forces community, where they have always belonged.

How many armed forces personnel were court-martialled due to their sexuality in the most recent period for which data is available prior to 2001.

Due to the broad range of offences applied to same-sex sexual acts and the record keeping practices prior to 2000, there is no way of conducting a search for data on sexuality based convictions. Court martials were held on a single Service basis until 2009, with the results of such cases being recorded in district court martial books and individuals’ Service records until the introduction of the Joint Personnel Administration database in 2006. Therefore, the data from prior to 2006 is not centrally held in a way which would enable this type of analysis. The Government encourages anyone who was convicted based on their sexuality to apply for a disregard through the Home Office’s Disregard and Pardon scheme.