Sadiq Khan, the Shadow Justice Secretary, commenting on the publication of the Government’s report on armed service veterans in the criminal justice system, said:

“Labour welcomes the recommendations in today’s report. We have been campaigning on this important issue for some time now and it is about time the Government did more than pay lip service to the needs of veterans.

“At a time when the government didn’t recognise this as a problem, Labour was arguing that more needed to be done to help keep our ex-servicemen and women out of our courts and prisons. It’s just a shame that it’s taken so long for change to happen.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to former members of our armed services. Most go on to have constructive lives after leaving the armed services but some can drift into a life of crime and we need to do more to prevent this. But I hope ministers will make a better fist of implementing the findings of today’s overdue report than they’ve done of producing it in the first place. Their whole approach to the issue has been half-hearted and insulting”.

Notes to Editors
1. Labour had campaigned on the issue of military veterans in the criminal justice
system for over a year.

2. As part of our campaign we tabled an amendment to the House of Commons Report Stage of the Offender Rehabilitation Bill in January 2024 to bring about a pilot veterans’ treatment panel to help those ex-service men and women in our criminal justice system. The link can be found here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2013-2014/0138/amend/offenderrehabaddednames.pdf

3. The Government refused to support the amendment but, under considerable pressure from the House of Commons, they had to agree to produce a report on the needs of ex-military personnel caught up in the justice system.

4. The Government’s review into Veterans in the Criminal Justice System was announced in January. It was tasked with looking at what put some veterans at risk of falling into the criminal justice system, what specialist support was available and how this could be improved. Rory Stewart MP was the original chair.

5. The Government promised in January that the review would report back by the middle of this year. Minister Jeremy Wright told MPs on 14th January that the review would ‘report to the Secretary of State within six months.’    
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140114/debtext/140114-0003.htm

6. Ministers then admitted that the review was months behind schedule. The review had still not reported back to the Secretary of State at the end of October 2024. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2014-10-21.211353.h&s=%28veterans+criminal+justice+system%29+section%3Awrans+section%3Awms#g211353.q0

7. Chris Grayling then handed the review over to Stephen Phillips MP QC after Rory Stewart was elected Chair of the Defence Select Committee in June. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-chair-announced-for-veterans-review

8. Stephen Phillips’ office protested that the review would be published imminently when he was criticised for the delay in November - it emerged he’d been spending considerable amounts of time on his second job as a barrister earning a six figure salary rather than producing the report http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-fatcat-accused-holding-up-4576219

9. It was confirmed that the Secretary of State had finally received the report at the end of November. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2014-11-19.215243.h&s=%28veterans+%22criminal+justice+system%22%29+section%3Awrans+section%3Awms#g215243.q0

10. With today’s final publication, the report is nearly 6 months behind schedule.