 The final item of business today is the member's business debate on motion number 11103, in the name of Christina McKelvie, on armed services advice project in a year of remembrance. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would be grateful if those members who wish to speak could press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Christina McKelvie to open the debate around seven minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I say thank you at the very start of this debate to everyone who signed the motion to allow it to be debated on this very, very timely occasion. A little earlier this afternoon, myself and friends from the Armed Services Advice Project, Sets Advice Scotland and Poppy Scotland, were delighted to hand to the Veterans Minister a highly significant report. I thank them all as they join us today in the public gallery for the work that they do all throughout the year, but especially at this time of the year. The report, like Remembrance Day, is in a sense a reminder that, while we never forget those lost in conflict, we must provide the right support to those who leave the armed forces for civilian life. A very interesting project that I visited this morning in my constituency in Mackinill primary school in Larkhall was the children who had identified all 257 men on the Remembrance Stone in Larkhall and remembered them all today on the poppies that they put on the school fence. It is those examples of our young people remembering the past that allow us to look to the future. That is what the report is all about. The acronym for this project is ASAP, and it seems to be to be especially important. The shifting and changing needs of life under a brutal and bruising austerity regime, we cannot wait around for the hope of something better. We are promised much more of the same, more cuts, ever reducing benefits for those with disabilities, and that group includes many former service personnel, the bedroom tax, debt problems and just keeping food on the table all become a challenge. Is this fair? Equal? Appropriate? Is this the kind of Scotland that we all want to inhabit? Of course not, not for anyone living in Scotland. Whatever their situation and circumstances, but the idea that veterans should be punished for serving their country is especially important. Back in 2012, Citizens Advice Scotland published Sivvy Street, the new front line, which outlined the issues that veterans can experience after leaving the armed forces, and we debated that report in this chamber too. While most people make the transition successfully, a significant minority experience challenging problems. That is where the Armed Services Advice project features. All sorts of problems can emerge, especially after a long time in service, where you have become unfamiliar with how the civilian world operates, and it changes every day. Sometimes it is difficult for me to keep up with it. In the armed forces, you can be out of touch with non-serving pals, and that can cause problems as well. Folk is not always well up in the terms of financial management or running a home from themselves and a family. It may be undiagnosed with mental health problems. It may be accessing payday loans, which are a feature now. Citizens Advice published a report and commented on some of the reaction to payday loans today. There can be big issues when it comes to family life back on Sivvy Street. The adjustment can be very difficult indeed. Following on from the original Sivvy Street report, the new one, which we have copies for you, supporting armed services community in 2014, takes a fresh look at the kinds of challenges veterans are experiencing and how most effectively we can help those people to work through them. Veterans are not fundamentally different from people in any other work of life. They will undergo the same problems as the rest of us, so debt and disability benefit changes will impact upon them in a similar way. In other ways, the patterns are different. Veterans seem more likely to have multiple issues and to sometimes react more negatively to a single problem. The ASAP service makes a valuable contribution in reaching out to the veterans, offering them expert advice and introducing them to the extensive network of support and assistance that is available to them. That network and support grows every single day through the work of all the projects involved. That distinct role that the partners involve play is that Citizens Advice Scotland, Poppy Scotland, the RAF Benevolent Fund, CFerrers UK and SAFA, the Armed Forces Charity, plus the support of Scottish Government is to be commended and actively supported. The key findings of the report show that housing and benefits have increased in terms of advisory needs, perhaps not something that should surprise us all. The bedroom tax will hit veterans at least as hard as any others. The cutbacks in DLA often tell on amputees and those with long-term critical health conditions that they are perfectly fit for work will have an extra impact. Advice needs are changing too. The emphasis has shifted. Benefit entitlement is the number one issue for ASAP clients. It tells us a lot about the Westminster Government's attitude, but absolutely nothing about how they plan to tackle it. Perhaps they just do not plan to. In the report on page 7, there is a table 1 and there are top 10 issues for 2012-2014. The top six are benefit entitlement, charitable applications, ESA, DLA for care, housing benefit and DLA mobility. That tells us all a very, very bleak picture. Veterans quite often seek self-employment as an option when they move back to Civic Street, but a lot of them have a problem with it. The whole business of looking for work, accessing housing and homelessness are all a need on-going and careful attention. With, as it says in the report, a 77 per cent increase in support sought with employment support allowance applications, there is a clear correlation to welfare reform and the problems that it presents. The value of sustaining this precisely focused and dedicated project aimed at addressing the needs of veterans is enormous. I will finish because I know that a number of my colleagues across the chamber have their own experience with ASAP, and I am keen to hear the work that they do there and the improvements that they have made. However, I will finish with just one comment, and it is on page 25 of the report. It is a quote from one of the service users. I quote, ASAP has been absolutely brilliant. All the information that they have given me, how they have actually helped me out a lot in the last year, they have got me things that I should have been entitled to for years, but they have got them all in place now. The key word in there is should have been entitled to. That person should not have needed to seek that type of sport for something that they are entitled to. It should have been in place, but with the help of ASAP, that is now in place. Practical support, that is what makes the difference. I commend ASAP to the chamber and believe that, as a Government, as a Parliament, as ordinary citizens, we must continue to support the work that ASAP, Citizens Advice and Poppy Scotland and all the other organisations that I have spoken about tonight address. I wish them well for the next two years and look forward to the next report. Many thanks. We now turn to the open debate speeches of around four minutes or so. I call Alex Ferguson to be followed by Bruce Crawford. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am genuinely delighted to be taking part in this debate this evening and, like others, I congratulate Christina McKelvie on tabling the motion that is before us. As convener of the cross-party group on armed forces veterans and indeed as a member of the advisory board of Poppy Scotland, the body which funds ASAP, I could not have chosen a more suitable subject for debate on this particular remembrance day and I feel very honoured to be taking part in it. The motion makes a really important point, which is that most service people make a successful transition back into civilian life and I think that that is something that we should not forget and should always highlight. Indeed, it is to be fervently hoped that the percentage of those making that successful transition will increase and continue to increase over time. As the work that is now taking place during service to identify servicemen and women who might require support after leaving the armed forces becomes ever more sophisticated and successful in identifying those most vulnerable individuals and yet, as the report published by Citizens Advice Scotland today emphasises, a significant majority experience challenging problems when transitioning from the highly ordered and in many ways protected regime of military life back to the devil take the hindmost and competitive world of civvy street. So, I suppose that it is no wonder that some people find it almost impossible to cope with that change, which simply underlines the importance of ASAP's fundamental aim, which is to be a focal point for the armed forces community in Scotland for access to advice, information and support, while working closely with key partner organisations to ensure that clients receive the most appropriate support. I think that aspect of ASAP's work, liaising closely with the key partner organisations that Christina McKelvie mentioned, is fundamental to the success that this project has undoubtedly achieved. The figures highlighted in today's speech speak for themselves, as Christina McKelvie has noted. I am quite sure that this level of success will continue as a direct result of what the motion rightly calls the tremendous work undertaken by the armed forces, armed services advisory project. However, I would like to use the rest of the short time available to me to highlight one aspect of transition that is perhaps worthy of greater focus. I was very moved by a conversation that I had with a senior saffa representative at the reception in Holyrood here to launch the poppy appeal just a couple of weeks ago. She told me of a woman who had sought her out for help because this lady was at a complete loss as to how she could continue to look after her ex-services partner without herself finding access to the support that she felt she needed. She was literally, I understand, at her wit's end. I think that this issue was highlighted in a song by Eric Bogle, who is a Scots-born singer-songwriter who has lived in Australia for many years. He wrote a song called Welcome Home for Australian Vietnam veterans who were returning home at the end of that dreadful conflict. It features somebody called Annie, a long-suffering and faithful wife waiting for her loved one to return. And one verse goes like this, when a nation goes to war, everyone's a casualty. Some are maimed and scarred, but most are wounds you cannot see. So in place of the man she'd known, Annie found instead a sick and troubled stranger in her bed. I find that verse extraordinarily poignant, Presiding Officer, but it surely highlights an unsung and heralded partner with whom we need to be working more closely. The long-suffering and patient life partner who too often has to pick up and try to rebuild the pieces of the person that they love once they have returned from perhaps a tour of duty or a scene of conflict, and they may and probably do get very little thanks for trying to do so. Now the report does mention the role of carers and rightly so, Presiding Officer, but I suspect that there are many unidentified individuals out there who struggle to cope with the unexpected personality change in their own partners when they leave the armed forces. They too desperately need our help and support, for they are as much victims of conflict as the partners for whom they are caring. ASAP has achieved an enormous amount in its short lifetime, but sadly there remains an enormous amount still to do. This Parliament, I know, wishes it nothing other than continued success, and I feel very privileged to add my name in support of the motion before us this evening. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Many thanks. I now call Bruce Crawford to be followed by Mark Griffin. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I sincerely thank and congratulate Christina McKelvie for bringing on this motion to Parliament today, probably the most poignant of days in terms of being the 11th day on the 11th month. Please forgive me at the beginning of my contribution for taking just a little time to speak about the hellish conflict of WWI. I do so for a purpose, and I want to talk about Stirling's role in it. With its central location and the railway station, Stirling became an important recruitment centre for Scotland in the First World War, as well as being a base for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Stirling acted as a recruitment and transit centre for the thousands of men who were making their way from there to the hell of the trenches. Recruits generally stayed there for a few days, were medically examined, issued their equipment and then shipped off to more permanent bases. Much of the training of the volunteers involved digging and the backfilling of trenches in Kings Park in Stirling and in Plain Country Park. In Stirling, people became used to the site and particularly the sound of soldiers marching to the playing of pipes from Stirling Castle to the railway station as they left for war. At the beginning of the war, there were hundreds being piped out of the castle, but the sound of the pipes gradually disappeared as the war went on. Eventually, to the end of that hellish conflict, the city fell silent. There were no pipers left. That is one of the saddest aspects for me of Stirling's military history. For those who did return from war at that time, life would never be the same again. Of course, there was little or no support available to them when they returned for war outside their immediate families. Today, however, we are very lucky to have projects such as the armed services advice project ASAP, which supports our servicemen and women returning from conflict zones. Having such a service specifically provides advice to armed forces community in my constituency as a real benefit not only to the service users but to the community as a whole. In Stirling, we are lucky enough to have a local adviser called Ali Gemell, who is there to assist and advise those who have problems, which may have been exacerbated by their service experience and any conflict that they may have been involved in. Ali and advisors from across Scotland provide special assistance and have links, obviously, into other organisations in their local area to tie in and support those who have the best knowledge and resources. They are fantastic at pulling people together. My constituents who use the service value and cherish the support that they receive. In many ways, ASAP, as Christina McKelway has outlined, is no different to many other organisations when it comes to the challenges that they face. In fact, a lot of their workload is due to the welfare reforms. In the past few years, the services advice bureau has seen an increase in the number of inquiries regarding benefits, with 37 per cent of inquiries from veterans relating to welfare changes. I think that it is quite incredible that we have found that 24 new volunteers operating in the Stirling area is a testament to the scale of the challenge in that regard. Let me bring the support provided by ASAP to life with a story from a former Black Watch soldier from my constituency. This veteran, originally from Canvas Barron, joined the Black Watch at 16. He served across the world in many very dangerous war zones. After many years serving his country, he returned home to Scotland to continue with civilian life. Once home, his marriage fell apart, he ended up homeless, and life took downward spiral as he began to take drugs to help to cope with the flashbacks that he was having from the time in the military. The armed services advice project was able to step in off of support, helping him to get award pension and service allowance. If ASAP were not there to help him, I dread to think what might have become of that man and where he would have turned to in his hour of need. There are stories like this from across the country illustrating the dedication and hard work of the support workers from the project. The work that the citizens advice Poppy Scotland and our services project are undertaking together in the area is invaluable, cherished and I am no doubt on occasion's life-saving. I congratulate Christina McKelvie on securing this member's debate on armed forces advice project, particularly on today's remembrance day. I also thank Citizens Advice Scotland and Poppy Scotland for the work that they do in delivering the project and for that updated report that they provided to all MSPs today. As the motion points out, the Citizens Advice Scotland project is tremendously important and managed to bring in over £3.8 million directly back into the pockets of veterans and their families since its inception. That is a return of £3.42 for every pound received in funding for the project, which shows incredible value for money. While that financial return is certainly impressive, that is not the reason that the service is so valued. The reason that the service is so valued is the difference that it makes to the lives of people who have served the country and are now finding it difficult to adjust to civilian life. Again, like others, we should note that, while a significant minority of armed forces veterans find it difficult to adjust, the majority of former servant personnel integrate back into civilian life with little or sometimes no difficulty. That said, the updated report on the armed forces advice project had some certainly interesting findings. The findings around debt were particularly positive since it has been recognised for a long time that some veterans have not always been able to manage their personal finances after leaving the armed forces. As a result of finding, sustaining employment and housing service, those veterans can quickly find themselves in debt and financial difficulty. The regimented lifestyle of the forces, where bills and food are not often the responsibility of a private soldier, can sometimes lead people into difficulty when they leave the services and they are not quite ready or prepared or have even spoken about the responsibilities that they have to take on themselves. It was surprising and welcome that the proportion of veterans who were coming to the project with personal debt issues had fallen so much to the point where now there is a lower proportion of former servant personnel coming to the citizens advice with debt issues as the proportion of the general population in Scotland. I think that that is really commendable and that is obviously down to the hard work that has been going on in advising service leavers. That said, the findings on welfare and benefit were anything but welcome. The difficulties that veterans have had with the process of claiming benefits and the sanctions that have been imposed are similar to those that we hear about every day in our surgeries from anyone else. However, the quote in the report from a veteran was quite shocking, I found. It said, I was not too happy about it because I felt that it was my place to work, but because of my injuries I could not. I suppose that I was being naive, stubborn. I had pride that I had to go and beg for money from people. That is the way I looked at it and I still do look at it that way. That is a comment from a former member of our armed forces, somebody who served our country, someone with an injury, I assume as a result of active service on our behalf. I do not think that any one person is more deserving than anyone else of a particular benefit, but nobody who has been injured in active service should have any sense that they were begging or undeserving of our support. I hope that the people who talk about scroungers and benefit fraud are a much bigger issue than they really are. It takes some time to reflect on the impact that it has had on injured former service personnel. That quote in particular would really hit home. I hope that, if anyone is watching the debate and they take anything, it is the support that we in this Parliament and that the country will continue to give to our veterans, not because it is out of charity, not because it is out of a sense of pity, not because they have begged for it, but because they deserve it. Many thanks. I now call Annabelle Ewing to be followed by Graham Day. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Indeed, today is a very appropriate day for us to be holding this debate. For the conflict that started 100 years ago this year, it came to an end as the guns fell silent at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In our acts of remembrance, around this time we tend to focus on the fallen of that and of other conflicts on those who will never come home. However, we need to remember, too, those who did come home. It was to look after the returning veterans maimed and damaged by war that the Earl Hague fund was set up in the first place, and it is to support veterans that the money is raised by the fund that still goes. When the First World War came to an end, the returning servicemen were promised a land fit for heroes, but it never materialised. Many of the soldiers struggled to find work or decent homes for their families, and post-traumatic stress disorder was dismissed simply as shell shock. Thankfully, we understand far better the needs of veterans today, but the picture, sadly, is still far from perfect, as members have alluded to. Even for those who are not leaving the armed forces after an actual conflict, they can still face real difficulties in making a smooth transition into civilian life. Poppy Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland are therefore to be praised for the work that they have done with the Armed Services Advice Project. I welcome the publication of the updated CAS report, which highlights the issues that those who are leaving the forces face, including, as far as I can see from the report, finding accommodation, housing arrears, homelessness benefits, which I will return to in a minute, particularly disability benefits and the sanctions imposed, and employment issues. The Armed Services Advice Project provides the additional support that many of those men and women need, and we have heard that some 6,000 people have been helped since the project began. On a very practical but purely financial level, the project has been a real success with a total client financial gain of some £3.8 million. The return therefore of £3.42 for every pound of funding that the project has received is to be welcomed. However, as has been mentioned, that is just one part of the story. What is much more valuable, I believe, is the support that the project provides. The sensitivity and understanding that helps to put some very vulnerable clients at their ease and allows them to trust those who are offering assistance. Indeed, one of the clients quoted in the briefing that CAS kindly provided for the debate this evening underlines this. Having been very nervous prior to the visit, I was put at ease and dealt with sympathetically. That sort of understanding and support is a vital component of the way in which the Armed Forces Services Advice Project is reaching out to and supporting its vulnerable clients. I am also pleased to note that, in the area that I represent in Mid Scotland in Fife, CAS has dedicated specialist regional officers associated with the project, not just in Sirling but in Clitlaninshire in Fife and in Tayside. It is clear in terms of the detailed breakdown of issues with which people present at the Citizens Advice Bureau that there are some issues that are significantly more common for the ASAP clients than for other clients. That reinforces the view that those who are leaving the Armed Forces face a very specific and distinct package of difficulties and proves that providing targeted, specific advice service is not just helpful but is much needed. As a member of both the Parliament's welfare reform committee and the cross-party group of veterans, the work that is being done by the project is a matter of real interest and pride to me. On the issue of benefits, we have heard that a particular issue concerns disability living allowance and the sanctions imposed in the system. I feel that we must really get to the bottom of that issue. I enjoy my remarks to a close, Presiding Officer. I would wish to say that I am very pleased to be a supporter of our Scottish Government, which has not only done everything within its power to resist the worst impact of the austerity agenda that is coming from Westminster but has also been extremely proactive in working on behalf of veterans. I pay tribute here in particular to the veterans minister, Keith Brown, who, as we know, is himself a veteran. In conclusion, I congratulate my colleague, Christina McKelvie, on securing this important debate and bringing this issue to the floor of the chamber. I, too, join with her in applauding the work of the Armed Services Advice project. One of the measures of a responsible civilised society, Presiding Officer, is surely how it treats its veterans. Regardless of whether we as individuals agree with the conflicts that our military may have been committed to, we have a duty of care to these men and women when they seek to return to civilian life, especially when involvement in those conflicts may have left its mark physically, mentally or both. Research has shown that, in the 16 to 44-age range, the number of ex-service personnel with mental health disorders is three times that of the wider population, as sobering statistics. Even if they have not been involved in conflicts, we have a responsibility as a society to assist them to make what can for some be a difficult transition into an environment far removed from that to which they have been used to. I commend the work of the Armed Services Advice project and my colleague Christina McKelvie for bringing this motion forward for debate. The extent to which the project, funded by Poppy Scotland and delivered by CAB, is needed is identified by today's report, with that headline figure showing 5,756 individual clients have been seen in a little over four years since July 2010, generating a financial return for those individuals and their families of approaching £144 million. When you drill down further, the demand for the services and offer becomes even clearer, because, although some 1,769 clients were recorded in the first two years of the project, the following two years up to March of this year saw 3,114 people come through the doors, and 80 per cent increased. We must proactively welcome service personnel and their families back into our communities. Although it is great that we have services such as ASAP offer in place, we ought to be making it as easy as possible for service personnel to integrate into civil life in the first place. We are moving the need to seek out support further down the line when avoidable issues have become problems. I am proud to represent an area of Scotland that is doing just that. Other parts of the country will ensure that we are doing their bit as well, but I would like to highlight what veterans returning to or relocating to Angus can find by way of immediate readily accessible assistance. Through Angus Council services are in place to support veterans in areas such as housing benefit, council tax reduction, discretionary housing payments, Scottish welfare crisis grants, community care grants, should they satisfy the criteria. In addition to the veteran who has responsibility for children of school age, free school meals, school clothing grants and educational maintenance allowances may be available. When assessing entitlement to housing benefit or council tax reduction, it is council policy when calculating the income of the applicant to disregard in full any entitlement to ward disabled pension or ward widows pension, thereby increasing the amount that is received. As part of the military covenant, Angus council provides housing information and advice to veterans and members of the services through their housing options service with advice accessible by a variety of means. There is also a comprehensive information booklet with veterans first, which covers a whole range of topics. Perhaps most important of all, as the minister is well aware, Angus council is actively providing affordable, accessible homes for ex-service personnel with special needs. That includes individually designing new houses in the council's mainstream stock, as well as, within a new development at Camus Crescent in Cerniwste, where five wheelchair accessible properties are being constructed for houses for heroes. Those properties are expected to become available in April or May of next year, and I am told that in excess of 20 applications have already been received. Richard Callander, the chairman of Houses for Heroes Cometaer and the Progress being made there, by saying that the well-designed development will offer homes tailored to the specific needs of young veterans injured in recent conflicts. The provision of those affordable houses will enable five families to live comfortably in their home communities, and surely that is the key point in their home communities. As the minister knows from having formally launched the demolition of the old folks complex, which used to occupy the site, those homes are located in the heart of Cerniwste. Sending a clear message that injured ex-service personnel will be welcomed into the heart of our communities is not left on the fringes on them either geographically or metaphorically. Of course, no system is perfect, and even in Angus there will be indeed a need for ASAP. The CAB in Arbroath has been offering a seven hours a week ASAP service for a year now, which has attracted around 50 cases thus far. That number, I suspect, is set to grow with discussions under way aimed at establishing an advice clinic at nearby RM Condor. Can I therefore conclude by congratulating Poppy Scotland and the CAB on the work that they are doing in this important area and welcoming the support published today, which provides an informative update on the nature of the issues that prompt ex-service personnel to turn to ASAP for support and advice? Many thanks. I now invite Keith Brown to respond to the debate minister in around seven minutes. I, like other members, congratulate Christine McKelvie on securing this debate and enjoy the Parliament's attention to both the excellent work done by the RM Services Advice Project ASAP and the publication of its annual report, providing details of the issues that it has assisted veterans with over the past two years. As a number of members have said, this is a very appropriate day in which to do this, as we remember those who have served in previous conflicts. Probably all members will have been involved in remembrance events in their own area, but I, like them, did that on Sunday. Two events since then stick in my mind. One was with a local school, Lawrence Hill Academy, who had a fantastic remembrance garden put together by the pupils. A lot of research done and an absolutely spine-tingling rendition of the greenfields of France, which was very memorable. In addition to that, just thinking about Bruce Crawford's comments about Stirling and how that was central as a departure point for many people, this morning, I unveiled a plac at Glasgow Central Station, where thousands of people had left to go to the war and, of course, many of them never returned. Members will recall from our 2012 debate on the first ASAP report that the service made an immediate and very effective impact. It is also highly regarded by the ex-service charity sector, which is very important. The latest report reaffirms the success and importance of ASAP. It continues to offer and provide a comprehensive advice and support service on a diverse range of issues to serving personnel to veterans and their families. I should also mention one or two of the comments that were made by members. I think that just hearing the list of things in Angus, which are happening through the council, some of which are happening through the Scottish Government, it really does, I think, hearten me to hear so much as being done for our veterans. That really is very much social justice in action for our veterans. I should also say that the figures that we have seen nearly 6,000 having made use of the service since 2010 are, in my view, a testament to the staff of ASAP for their incredible work and a fine reflection of the successes that they achieve. However, it has also been reported in the media, and I would say that I think that that is a real testament to success, the fact that so many more people are accessing these services. I think that, in this respect and in many others, there is shining a light on the areas where perhaps veterans did not get the support that they should have had in the past. I think that, as a marker of their success, so many are accessing the services of ASAP. Every bit of help provided, every extra pound of additional benefit, every bit of assistance with finding a job or securing a house, or helping to resolve a financial difficulty makes an enormous and sometimes life-changing difference to the person who has walked through the door of ASAP. Alex Ferguson quite rightly mentions the fact that the vast majority of service personnel manage that transition very effectively, but it is also true to say that how much more effectively would some of them manage that if the benefits and the assistance was almost automatic and this was provided as a right and that more was done to create awareness of the benefits which are there. Actually, Mark Griffin is right as well, the attitude that some members of the forces have that this is undeserving and it is not really their place to ask for these things. I think that it is something that we have to tackle. Of course, they deserve every assistance that we can give them. The success and support and determination of ASAP is acknowledged. That is why they are supported by Citizens Advice Scotland, Poppy Scotland, the Army and RAF Benevolent Funds, Seafairers UK and the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen Families Federation. I would like other members to offer my congratulations to all involved with ASAP on another excellent year. I know that the service works well and it is connected to a range of other support agencies. That is what makes it so effective and the report published today proves that to be the case. The report highlights a number of issues that it has addressed and it makes very interesting reading in the debate today. Members have highlighted both specific examples of achievements and highlighted areas where further work is necessary to ensure that our armed forces community are indeed properly supported by society at large. Just to go back on the point that the previous report, the title of it, that the city street was effectively the front line, underlines the extent perhaps to the surprise of many people in civilian life, how much of a trauma that can be. If you think about the increased numbers entering civilian life, some of whom have been made redundant, some of whom have left the service, after a long period on active service, which both of which can be quite dramatic, then we can see that the need for this kind of support will be there for many years to come. Based on the work undertaken on behalf of over 3,000 veterans and covering a two-year period, the report highlights for me that, although there are specific issues on which some of our ex-service community can and do need extra support, the arrangement of public services for our armed forces community is improving. Not surprisingly, their needs also generally mirror those of the wider general population. A number of themes and threads emerge from the report, for example, that debt problems faced by ex-service personnel are dropping, as Mark Griffin mentioned, and are now lower than the general population. Of course, that should not mean that we should be complacent, as debt can be and is a huge burden on individuals and families. However, I am reassured to note that credit card debt, for example, is left in half as common as an issue that it was two years ago. It is also gratifying that, while significant to the people who face difficulties or issues requiring resolution, housing, health and employment problems are all relatively low in number, there is also a strong theme in the report about the difficulties faced by many people, including those who have served in understanding and accessing the benefits system. Indeed, 40 per cent of all ASAP cases have been in connection with that issue. Of course, that is a reserved matter, but I am pleased that organisations like ASAP, with the expertise that they have, and the wider ex-service charity sector, are able to assist veterans and families to navigate through the system. When last year, Presiding Officer, I stood outside the Parliament for a press photo call with service personnel and veterans and representatives of Citizens Advice Scotland and ASAP, we held up placards showing that ASAP had directly helped the armed forces community to access more than £2 million in benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions that would otherwise go unclaimed. That was, and is, an astonishing amount. Behind every pound there is a story. One year on that figure, as we have heard, has risen to £3.8 million since ASAP was established, and that is proof, if it were needed, that ASAP is a success. Of course, more needs to be done, as many members have said in this area, by the military in preparing service personnel for civilian life before they are discharged, and, certainly, I think that you could do more work in making people aware of the benefits, not just that they are available, but the fact that they are entitled to those benefits as of right. We should see more of what being done by the DWP in making benefits, the benefits system, more transparent, by DWP champions in helping ex-service personnel and by the charity sector. It is also worth noting that the new Scottish Veterans Commissioner, Eric Fraser, who I appointed in July and took up his post in August, will also have a crucial role to play. It is gratifying to see that he is in the gallery today. Eric Fraser's task is to gather information on what works for veterans in Scotland and what does not. He will identify where improvements in public services have to be made and also establish where there are gaps and where disadvantage is still being experienced. The commissioner will make recommendations. I will act on those in respect of public services. Where he makes recommendations in respect of other service providers, I will push for change in the appropriate place. I think that there are many members here and other members who are not here who will also play a part in doing that. The Scottish Government has long recognised that the UK Government welfare reforms coming into effect would have a huge impact on our people, our communities and our economy. We have made our position quite clear. We agree that reform is needed. The system needs to be simpler, and the work of ASAP demonstrates that very well. Expenditure needs to be affordable, and work needs to pay. However, the UK Government's reforms are absolutely, in my view, not the answer. They are unfair, they are coming too fast, and they are happening against a backdrop of some of the biggest reductions to the welfare system in a generation. We in Scotland see the third sector as a valued and genuine partner in helping us to mitigate the effects of decisions taken elsewhere. We are working closely with organisations, including the third sector, and local authorities across Scotland in a collective effort to do all that we can to help those affected by the worst impacts of the changes. DLA was mentioned, and there have been thousands upon thousands of pounds lost to many veterans because of that change alone. Advice organisations are playing a key role in providing support to the people bearing the brunt of those cuts. The motion today has provided an opportunity to recognise the success of ASAP in delivering real, tangible benefits to those who have served. I give my assurance that the Scottish Government will continue to work with the armed forces, veterans charities and public sector providers to ensure that we meet the aspirations and expectations of our service personnel, as well as their families. I think that very eloquently described some of the pressures on families by Alec Ferguson and, of course, for veterans themselves. We will not fail in our effort to do the best that we can for them. Many thanks minister. That concludes Christina McKelvie's debate on services advice project in the year of remembrance. I now close this meeting of parliament.