Two and a half years ahead of the Scottish constitutional referendum which is expected to be held in the autumn of 2014, the British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) is already working on the implications for service personnel.

The membership of the British Armed Forces Federation is drawn from personnel from all three services from across the United Kingdom, as well as those from elsewhere in the Commonwealth. (No referendum vote for citizens of overseas Commonwealth countries, except Malta and Cyprus.)

The Coalition Government introduced a new Electoral and Administration Bill in the House of Commons in May 2012. The Bill provides for the introduction of individual electoral registration in Great Britain, and a number of changes relating to electoral administration and the conduct of elections.

As we see it, the main benefit to service voters is that the timetable for UK parliamentary elections would be extended from 17 to 25 days.

BAFF was represented at the Presidium meeting of the European Organisation of Military Associations - EUROMIL - held at Limerick, Ireland on 27-28 April, 2012.

The two-person BAFF delegation included the Federation's Chairman, Douglas Young. He renewed acquaintance with colleagues from (amongst other countries) Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Montenegro, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as EUROMIL Board members and staff from the small EUROMIL headquarters in Brussels.

The Scottish Government's consultation on arrangements for the independence referendum closes 11 May 2012. Anyone can take part. You can complete the consultation online and you can even take part anonymously, although we do not recommend this.

The separate consultation by the UK Government's Scotland Office has already taken place. BAFF took part in that consultation, and our views were quoted in the UK Government's published summary of the consultation results.

Given that beyond question there are service personnel on both sides of the referendum debate, our focus as with previous elections is to encourage eligible members of the armed forces community to make sure they are properly registered, and then make their own voting choice with confidence that their votes will count.

More than 8000 personnel from Commonwealth countries (other than the UK) serve in the Royal Navy, Brish Army and Royal Air Force.

Among them are 2,200 Fijians who make up one of the largest groups of Commonwealth service men and women to serve in Her Majesty's British Armed Forces.

Ex-servicemen who had been exposed to radiation in British nuclear weapons tests have lost their Supreme Court bid to launch negligence claims against the Ministry of Defence. BBC News reports that:

As we predicted a few days ago, the Armed Forces Pay Review Body's 2012 report has now been published. The Government has accepted its recommendations on armed forces pay and charges for 2012-2013.

The report has been published on the Office of Manpower Economics' website but, as members have reported difficulty in opening the document, we are meantime making a copy available to logged-in registered users here:

The British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) has responded to the UK Government Scotland Office consultation on arrangements for a referendum on Scotland's constitutional future. The Federation is also responding to the separate consultation by the Scottish Government.

UPDATE: Following the publication of the results of the UK Government's consultation, the BAFF response to that consultation is now available at the link below without the need to log in. The UK's Government's summary includes a quote from the BAFF submission.

The Ministry of Defence has denied the report in today's Times that married soldiers living in Army accommodation will be forced out of their homes under "cost-cutting proposals" being considered by the MOD, as part of the New Employment Model (NEM). The Ministry does not, however, appear to deny that reducing the entitlement to service housing is one of the "range of options" under consideration.

The Labour Party has launched a Shadow Defence Review. BritishForcesNews reports (22 Feb) that: