MoD 'must lose' remit for veterans

Published on Thursday 27 January 2011 14:51

Responsibility for veterans' affairs should be taken away from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), two former leading members of the forces have demanded.

Former chief of the defence staff Lord Craig of Radley and former adjutant general Lord Ramsbotham both called for the role of veterans minister to be transferred to the Cabinet Office.

Lord Craig, who was head of the armed forces at the time of the first Gulf War, said there were "violently conflicting" demands on the MoD and, therefore, veterans "cannot be given the support needed to care for them properly".

He asked: "Would it not be possible to have a senior veterans minister with the appropriate support and budget in the Cabinet Office?

"We all know the financial situation does not make it easy, but surely this is a transitory problem as far as our veterans and their interests are concerned."

Lord Ramsbotham agreed the MoD was not the right place for the minister of veteran affairs. "All the affairs with which he is meant to be dealing are conducted not by the MoD but by all the other ministries involved - the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, local government and so on," he said.