Consultation outcome

Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans serving in operations outside the United Kingdom

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government
This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Detail of outcome

The Ministry of Defence has now completed its analysis of responses to the public consultation on Legal Protections for Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans serving in operations outside the United Kingdom. The consultation was launched on 22 July 2019 and concluded on 13 October 2019. Over 4,200 responses were received.

The MOD’s Analysis and Response includes statistical data and identifies the key themes drawn from the textual comments provided by respondents. A MOD response has been provided for each question set to explain how we have reflected on these key themes, and also against the more general points made by respondents.

The analysis of the responses helped to guide our thinking and to shape the legal protections measures that were introduced on 18 March 2020 in the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, to deliver the manifesto commitment to legislate to prevent vexatious claims being brought against the Armed Forces.


Original consultation

Summary

We invite you to share your views on proposals for measures to provide legal protections for armed forces personnel and veterans serving in operations outside the UK.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to our armed forces, who perform exceptional feats in incredibly difficult circumstances to protect this country.

This government is strongly opposed to our armed forces personnel and veterans being subject to repeated investigations in connection with historical operations committed in the course of duty outside the UK, many years after the events in question.

On 21 May 2019, the Secretary of State for Defence announced her plans to take forward work to address this important issue, including this public consultation on proposed measures which we believe can be enacted in a manner which is consistent with our obligations under domestic and international law, while providing genuine benefits to our personnel.

Support for Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans: Written statement

Legal Protections for Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Statement made on 17 September 2020

Documents

Updates to this page

Published 22 July 2019
Last updated 17 September 2020 + show all updates
  1. Added the final outcome, MOD analysis and response.

  2. First published.

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