Downing Street Says » Compensation for Servicemen

Asked for the Prime Minister s view on the comments made by Eric Joyce, the Defence Secretary s Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS), regarding compensation for servicemen, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) said that the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Defence were completely focused on ensuring that our servicemen and women had the right support in terms of equipment on the ground, and that the compensation scheme in the UK most fairly compensated those who were most severely injured. The Defence Secretary had brought forward the review into the compensation scheme that would be done in consultation with the families and other stakeholders, which the Prime Minister believed was the right thing to do.

Put that the Prime Minister was failing to say anything to support Eric Joyce, the PMS said that the review had been brought forward; the Defence Secretary set out his reasons very clearly at the time as to why the review needed to be brought forward. We needed to have a compensation scheme that most fairly compensated those who had been most severely injured, and we hoped that by bringing forward the review any anomalies in the system would be clarified.

Put that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had said that Eric Joyce would keep his job and if that was right, the PMS said she had nothing to add to what the MoD had already said on that issue, but in answer to the question about the compensation scheme, the Prime Minister fully supported the decision that the Defence Secretary took to bring the scheme forward, which was the best way to deal with the families and the stakeholders involved.

Put that it was fair to ask about the future of a PPS, the PMS said that she was not going to get into drawing differences between the way different people expressed themselves; the Prime Minister believed it was the correct thing to do to bring the compensation scheme review forward.

Asked who the Defence Secretary s PPS was, the PMS said that it was the same person it was this morning.

Asked if the review could supersede the court case making the case unnecessary, the PMS said that the court case was yet to report back, but the Defence Secretary had set out why it was important to bring forward the review of the compensation scheme, which was something the Prime Minister agreed with at the time.

Asked when the review would conclude, the PMS said it was best to check with the department.

Asked if the Prime Minister supported the Defence Secretary s decision to lodge a case with the Court of Appeal regarding two soldiers compensation, the PMS said that the Prime Minister believed the course that the Defence Secretary had taken was the right course; the two things were being looked at together. The Prime Minister believed that we needed to maintain the principle of the compensation scheme and it was important that that principle was guarded in that the most severely injured people should receive the most compensation. The Defence Secretary took the decision that the best way to do that was to bring the review forward, but he also spoke about the need to reassure people of the Government s support for our injured servicemen and women. The Prime Minister believed that was the correct thing to do.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to Eric Joyce, the PMS said that she couldn t answer that question as she didn t know the answer but wouldn t normally comment on the Prime Minister s conversations with individuals anyway.

Asked if this Government s collective responsibility included PPS s, the PMS said that the situation on all these issues was unchanged.

Put that under previous Governments those PPS s who disagreed with their own department s policies would have to resign, the PMS said that she didn t necessarily agree with the characterisation of the issue; the MoD had set out the position and there was nothing further to add.

Put that Eric Joyce said that the MoD s appeal should be dropped, the PMS said that the Defence Secretary set out very clearly at the time what the Government s position was and it was clear that we needed to bring forward the review of the compensation scheme.

Asked if in the future we could expect those PPS s who openly disagreed with Government policy to keep their jobs, the PMS said that she did not agree with all the premises in that question; the Government s position had been set out and there was nothing further to add.

Asked if it was still Government policy to pursue court cases, the PMS said that the court process was ongoing and it was best to talk to the MoD about specifics. The fact of the matter was that the review had been brought forward that would look into all these issues.

Put that the review could conclude after the court case, the PMS said that she would not pre-empt the outcome of either issue.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Monday, August 3, 2009

Compensation for Servicemen

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries