Today (31st March), the Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill sat to scrutinise the bill line-by-line.

In this session, we debated and voted on new clauses that had been put forward. 

Labour want to see the following changes:

• We want to place the same legal responsibility to have 'due regard' to the Armed Forces Covenant on central Government and the devolved administrations, as the current drafting of the bill puts on local authorities and other public bodies. It should be equal across the board.
• We also want to widen the scope of the bill to address all matters of potential disadvantage for service personnel. These areas are employment, pensions, compensation, social care, criminal justice and immigration.
• We want to expand the powers of the Service Complaints Ombudsman, to include matters relating to the Armed Forces Covenant. If a person whom the covenant applies to finds themselves wronged in a matter relating to the covenant, they should be able to make a complaint.
• In a point that I raised with the Minister for Service people and veterans, we want to ensure that serious crimes like rape are tried in civilian courts, as was recommended in the Lyons review.
• We have a new clause, requiring the Government to produce a definition of 'priority care' and conduct a review of mental health waiting time targets for service personnel and veterans
• Labour want the Government to be required to report annually on the standard of service accommodation and publish a report on what constitutes minimum standards for Armed Forces accommodation.
• The many commonwealth veterans who have served our country should only pay the unit cost of an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain if they apply for UK citizenship
• Finally, the Government should be required to conduct a comprehensive review of the number of people who were dismissed or forced to resign from the Armed Forces due to their sexuality, and to make recommendations on appropriate forms of compensation. 

In today's session, I interjected to comment on the proposed new clauses relating to the creation of a Representative Body, akin to the Police Federation. 

I also contributed to argue in favour of New Clause 11. This clause would require the Government to report annually on the standard of service accommodation, and produce a Serving Housing Charter to set and enforce a common, minimum standard across all service accommodation. When nearly half of all service personnel are dissatisfied with their accommodation, we know something must change.

I'm pleased to confirm that I have been re-elected Chair of the APPG on Cancer. ​The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer (APPGC) aims to be the voice in Parliament of cancer patients and their families, and campaigns on multiple issues, including early diagnosis, workforce, rarer cancers and patient experience.

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The Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill have today launched our survey on the Armed Forces Bill 2019-21, in order to help direct our inquiry into the matter.  

We are seeking the views of Armed Forces personnel, veterans, families and anyone subject to service law.

This survey will be used to inform the Committee’s inquiry, and responses to the survey may be included in the Committee's report. Responses will be treated anonymously. 

Complete the survey here.