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The Earl of Minto (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 24 March 2025

Debate

Armed Forces Commissioner Bill

Contribution

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who spoke on this group, in particular the Minister. I thought that what he said was really clear and comforting. I quite take the point made by the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, about it being axiomatic that recruitment and retention are part of the purpose here, but they are important enough to get proper focus. On Amendment 17, therefore, we hope that the Minister has listened to our argument for recruitment and retention to be addressed directly here. It is of course our duty to seek the resolution of welfare issues faced by our service personnel for its own sake, but we should also be acutely aware of the impact that service conditions have on all of our hard-working Armed Forces. I turn to Amendment 18 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newnham. We absolutely support the spirit of this amendment, as well as the need for proper transparency and oversight of the commissioner. As I say, it was very comforting to hear the comprehensive assurances from the Minister, in which case I beg leave to withdraw this amendment.

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