Healey pledges ‘substantial reforms’ to protect troops and families

Pledging to “back those who sacrifice so much”, the minister announced that the Armed Forces Bill will also raise the age limit for reservists from 55 to 65, and make it easier to mobilise personnel earlier ahead of war.

In the Commons, Mr Healey promised Labour will “complete the job” started by previous governments on the Armed Forces Covenant by bringing it fully into law.

“We extend the Armed Forces Covenant across central government, devolved governments and at the local level, fulfilling a promise we made in our manifesto,” he said.

“This means social care, employment support, other public services, will be legally required to consider the unique circumstances faced by forces personnel, by their families and veterans.”

Introducing the Bill on Monday, the Defence Secretary said: “We pledged to renew the nation’s contract with those who serve.

“Through this Bill, we’re delivering exactly that, backing those who sacrifice so much, making Britain safer, delivering for defence, delivering for Britain.”

Mr Healey said the legislation introduces “substantial reforms” to protect service personnel from serious crime, such as sexual abuse and harassment, to support victims, and ensure perpetrators “have nowhere to hide”.

He added: "Together, the provisions in this Bill will make available in the service justice system a comprehensive range of protection orders, including sexual harm, domestic abuse and stalking.

"It will strengthen supervision of offenders on release from prison.

"It will ensure that service restraining orders are enforceable in the criminal justice system, once a defendant has left the armed forces.

"It will place a duty on the Secretary of State to issue a code of practice setting out the services that victims can expect to receive in the service justice system.

“And it will allow victims to choose whether they wish to have their case heard in a civil or a military court, though the formal decision will be taken by the prosecutor.”

He continued: "Make no mistake, these are substantial reforms reflecting both the seriousness of the problem and our resolve to root it out."

The Defence Secretary also vowed to “end the scandal of service families living in substandard housing”, arguing there is a “moral duty” to provide “safe and decent” accommodation.

The Bill creates the Defence Housing Service, a specialist arm’s length organisation designed to transform service family accommodation.

Backed by the £9 million Defence Housing Strategy, it aims to upgrade 90% of military homes over 10 years, focusing on better quality, improved maintenance and addressing damp and mould.

Addressing the issue of unidentified drones over UK military bases, the draft law will also “create a regime allowing defence personnel to better detect, deter and defeat drones posing a threat to defence property and activities”, Mr Healey said.

Finally, the Defence Secretary argued that the current age limit on reservists is leading to cyber operators, trainers, medics and translators “being shown the door to the military”, while they continue to perform these jobs in their civilian life.

He said reserve forces are “crucial to a sustainable, efficient, rapid potential transition to war”.

The Bill, he said, will “make it easier to mobilise personnel earlier ahead of the outbreak of war, align the time for which we call applies across all free services to 18 years, and increase the maximum age at which reservists can be recalled from 55 to 65.”

Defence Committee chairman Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi welcomed better protection for victims of serious offences in the Bill, but called on the Government to go further.

The Labour MP for Slough said: “Victims of appalling crimes, such as domestic violence and sexual offences, have been continually failed by the system, and the measures in this Bill can make a positive difference for them.

“However, we would have liked to see the Government go further and implement our predecessor committee’s recommendation that cases of rape and sexual assault are automatically heard in civilian courts.”

Mr Singh Dhesi welcomed the Bill’s attempts to make better use of the talent in the reserve forces, but said “it’s not clear how many additional reservists the Government expects the measures to generate, and so it is difficult to know whether the Bill will make a meaningful improvement in our defence readiness”.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge also welcomed steps to ensure the service justice system protects victims of serious crime, but said: “The reality is that to implement cultural change in any large organisation does not happen overnight.”

Conservative former security minister Tom Tugendhat said reservists should be used to fill skill gaps in the armed forces.

He said Europe “has simply not been prepared for the challenges that we are facing”, which he added included attacks on energy infrastructure and efforts to hit hospitals “through cyber”.

Nodding towards armed forces minister Al Carns, who was sat on the Treasury bench, Mr Tugendhat told the Commons: “I pay huge respect to my friend with whom I served on far too many adventures overseas. (I know) that he can do 30 pull ups.

“But how fast can he hack into a Russian terminal? I’m not sure it’s his skillset.

“These are different skills and we need to be looking to the reserve to fill different approaches.”