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The independent review into UK Government welfare services for veterans is focused on the effectiveness and efficiency of reserved welfare services for Armed Forces veterans that are largely owned or funded by the Ministry of Defence. However, the Scottish Government would assist the review if requested to by the review team.

I was recently appointed as Minister for Veterans and will meet with the Scottish Veterans Commissioner as part of my programme of introductory meetings. Scottish Government officials have regular meetings with the Commissioner and her team.

Following agreement of a memorandum of understanding between Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in March 2022, an action plan was agreed between SDS, MoD and the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) who deliver support to leavers of the armed forces as they transition to civilian life.

Actions underway include:-

• SDS sharing labour market intelligence and other data to CTP for use by their career consultants;
• the development of a joint referral process for those early service leavers who may be entitled to, or will benefit from SDS careers services;
• jointly delivered training sessions on each organisation’s service offer to both CTP and SDS advisers;
• SDS attendance at a CTP jobs event in Kinloss at the end of 2022 and at Murrayfield on 20 April 2023
• work to ensure Modern, Graduate and Foundation Apprenticeships are promoted to early service leavers, veterans and their families.

Progress of the plan is being monitored at a joint senior level across SDS, MoD and CTP.

The most recent estimate of the number of veterans of the UK Armed Forces resident in Scotland is 220,000, which was taken from the annual population survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics in 2017. Scotland's Census 2022 included for the first time a question on previous service in the UK Armed Forces. Census data will help to support a better understanding of the veterans community in Scotland, including numbers.

The Scottish Government has worked with the Forces Families Federations to advertise our vacancies through the Forces Families Jobs website. The website is also promoted through our Welcome to Scotland guide as a route to employment for Service families.

Veterans are assets to our society and my ambition remains to make Scotland the destination of choice for Service leavers and their families, offering high living standards, great educational opportunities and a society that respects and values their contribution.

The work of Armed Forces and Veterans Champions throughout Scotland is crucial to ensuring veterans can access the right support, guidance and services. The Scottish Government supports fully the work of the Champions in public sector organisations including Police Scotland, Local Authorities, the NHS, Department for Work and Pensions and Higher and Further Education institutions.

The ADVANCE Network was established by the Veterans Group to provide a single point of contact in each of Scotland's colleges and universities for veterans, ex-armed forces and their families. While the Network is not specifically designed to provide educational opportunities to the armed forces community, it does have a role in promoting Higher Education and Further Education to those from within the armed forces community, and many institutions have educational options available for the armed forces community. The Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of veterans who use the Network to access educational opportunities.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Partnership's military skills discovery tool formally launched in March 2023 after the completion of work to expand the number of military job roles within the tool as the result of feedback and testing with service leavers. As such there are limited statistics on the number of users to date, but SCQF Partnership are working with Skills Development Scotland, who host the tool on their My World of Work website, to develop usage statistics and to use them to drive future development of the tool.

Patients travelling outwith their local Health Board area for treatment at a National Treatment Centre (NTC) will be compensated for their travel expenses by their Board of Residence, in line with the process for other cross boundary patients.

Patients referred in the first instance will be expected to make their own way to the NTC. However, to ensure equity of access, where necessary - and by special arrangement between the NHS Board and the NTC - every effort should be made to support transport arrangements for patients who otherwise meet the referral criteria for treatment within an NTC facility. To support equity of access across patient groups, where NTC transport services are not available, alternative transport methods may be used (e.g. Hospital Ambulance Car Service, a volunteer service, ambulance or taxi). On all occasions the cost of transporting patients will be passed back to the purchaser (referring Board) for payment.

Patients should speak to their local health board about help with travel or accommodation costs to attend an appointment at an NTC and should follow the NHS Board travel expense policy requirements guidelines to make an expense claim.

In the specific case of NHS Grampian patients receiving treatment at NTC Highland:

Patient travel costs and the travel cost of a person accompanying them will be reimbursed. This is either at a cost per mile if they choose to drive or full reimbursement of public transport. If required by the patient, support can be provided by NHS Grampian’s Central Waiting Times Team to arrange transport on their behalf.

Accommodation is offered to the patient, and person accompanying the patient under reasonable circumstances, and would be arranged through NHS Grampian’s Central Waiting Times Team. Costs are either reimbursed to the patient or paid for directly by NHS Grampian (as is the case for Golden Jubilee Hospital).

Examples of reasonable circumstances

•if the appointment or admission time is early morning or late afternoon.

•if the patient requires an overnight or multiple nights’ stay at which point accommodation would be arranged for the person accompanying the patient.

•The patient or person accompanying them has medical conditions which would prevent travel to and back from location on same day.

If capacity at NTC Highland were to be allocated to other Boards outwith the local health board area, the responsibility for accommodation and transport would similarly fall upon the patient’s Board of Residence and be subject to that Boards’ procedures for cross-boundary patients.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on the number of businesses that have used the Capitalising on Military Talent toolkit.

The Scottish Government provides an annual update to Parliament on our support for veterans and the Armed Forces community in Scotland. This sets out progress made in delivering the commitments we have made in our Veterans Strategy Action Plan, which is focused on achieving the vision and long term outcomes of the five cross-cutting factors and six key themes in The Strategy for Our Veterans. The accompanying written report from 2022 can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/support-veterans-armed-forces-community-2022/