Dan Jarvis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2014 to Question 216388, if he will provide funding for Normandy Veterans to return to sites of Remembrance they choose rather than to sites chosen by the Royal British Legion as part of the D-Day Return scheme.

Anna Soubry

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not fund visits by veterans to return to sites of Remembrance. The long standing MOD policy on official commemorations is that only certain specific anniversaries of events of major importance receive MOD sponsorship at public expense.

Funding is still available from the Big Lottery fund, Heroes Return 2 scheme, as long as veterans travel before 31 December 2015 and haven’t benefited from this scheme since 1 January 2013. This scheme allows veterans to return to the theatre in which they saw action, so travel is not limited to Normandy.

In addition, and as advised by my hon. Friend the Treasury Minister (David Gauke) in his response to Question 216388, the Royal British Legion (RBL) has been chosen to run the D-Day return scheme on the Government’s behalf. As detailed on the RBL website, the D-Day return scheme will not fund independent travel.