As most members will know by now, BAFF is giving up its 'Company Limited by Guarantee' and moving to an unincorporated association model. Activity continues. The change has been forced upon us quite simply because we wouldn''t afford the quoted cost for future company secretary and company accounts.
The exact date has yet to be agreed, but is now imminent.
According to a recent story in the Telegraph, the Ministry of Defence is still supposed to be rewriting its transgender policy, more than a year after the Supreme Court judgment on the meaning of "woman" in the Equality Act, leaving commanding officers and service personnel uncertain about the applicable rules.
Good to see Armed Forces Day being celebrated once again in many places across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and in Scotland, which had "more than a dozen events" from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Thurso and Dumfries.
The fact that Glasgow held (and were always going to hold) an official AFD event is perhaps worth noting in view of recent controversies.
Indeed, Glasgow registered their event on the official AFD website, thus they are one of the places mentioned in national as well as regional and local media.
There were, in fact, more official events in Scotland than were ever registered on the national site. That is of course entirely a matter for the organisers of each event, often a local branch of the Royal British Legion or Royal British Legion Scotland (Legion Scotland) with strong support from the local authority along with regular and reserve armed forces, youth organisations, charities and others and of course the members of the public who turned out to enjoy an event honouring our country's armed forces personnel.
Those like Inverness in Highland, who chose not to be included on the national UK listing, no doubt felt that local and regional publicity would be sufficient to inform the local public.
Organiser are not obliged to register their event and thus have it included on the 'Find Your Event - Armed Forces Day' database available to all.
Is there a an argument, however, that national (UK-level)
A report just released by the National Audit Office says that the Ministry of Defence lost the taxpayer around £14.5 billion over the life of the Annington Homes deal, compared to where we would be if the 1996 deal had never happened.
But there is also praise for the action finally taken by MoD to repurchase more than 36,000 service family homes in England and Wales for £6 billion.
The deal involved the transfer to the private sector of the bulk of the MOD's service family accommodation (SFA) in England. It was widely criiticised, increasingly so as the maintenance standard of SFA under a separate contract was seen as deteriorating, and when surplus accommodation was being released for the market, the MOD had to pay to refurbish the properties before being sold for private sector profit.
The NAO had reported that the MoD’s main aims had been "to secure funds for upgrade work; improve management of the estate; and secure value for money through a competitive sale." [Comment: There were 19 bidders.] They had found that "the sale and leaseback appeared to satisfy the MoD’s immediate objectives. However, the sale price was lower than the value of retaining the estate, and the MoD retained important responsibilities for managing it."
So although there were rational objectives for the deal at the time, there were criticisms at the time which only increased in the new century.
Although as ever there were financial pressures
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Inverclyde Council is one of several Scottish local authorities which have agreed to award the Freedom of their area to the Royal Regiment of Scotland in this, its 20th year.
After the Glasgow controversy it was pleasant to learn from the Greenock Telegraph that the Council have now confirmed the date and arrangements for the Regiment's Freedom Ceremony.
The armed forces are set to receive an above-inflation pay award, with an announcement expected in the coming days.
Update 30.05.26 - The special reduced £5 subscription has been agreed and will be rolled out shortly. It will only be on offer for a short period during the transition to an association.
The Chair of the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan has granted Core Participant status to five individuals "who held command roles or senior positions within UK Special Forces between mid-2010 and mid-2013."
Today, 22nd May 2026, is the fifteenth anniversary of the official end of Operation Telic, the formal name for UK operations in Iraq that began with the 2003 invasion and subsequent removal of the dictator.
We thought it might assist Glasgow City Council members if they were to see an example of a previous parade in which the Freedom of a council area was formally conferred on the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Here's a high-quality video of the Freedom Ceremony on 12th October, 2015 conferring on the Regiment the Freedom of the Highlands:
The Prime Minister said in Parliament today that Glasgow City Council should 'reconsider' its controversial decision last week to reject a motion to grant the Freedom of the City to the Royal Regiment of Scotland in this, its 20th anniversary year.
Congratulations to the whole team involved in getting medical assistance and supplies to the remote British Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha to help a British national with suspected hantavirus.
Voting on 7th May in England? Don't forget to bring Photo ID with you, if voting in person at the polling station.
What forms of Photo ID are acceptable?
An essential part of 'successor BAFF', which will take the form of an Unincorporated Association, is a new Constitution.
With a significant procedural motion concerning the NI Troubles Bill expected on Monday (27 April), the picture is supposedly complicated by the expected absence of the Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who is believed to be visiting troops engaged in defensive missions against Iran in the Gulf.
The saga of Northern Ireland Troubles legislation continues in Parliament on Monday (27 April), following a statement by the NI Secretary Hilary Benn last week.
A recent BAFF blog post mentioned that the first phase of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is due to come into force in May 2026.
There was nothing specifically about service accommodation in the Renters' Rights Bill as first introduced by the Labour Government - or in its predecessor Bill introduced under the Conservative Government but never completed its stages before the General Election in 2024.
Sarah Gibson MP (Lib Dem, Chippenham) found cross-party support for a clause to be added to the Bill to require an annual assessment of
(a) the extent to which service family accommodation in England meets the relevant standards during that year, and
(b)the work to maintain and improve the standard of service family accommodation in England that is undertaken during that year and planned for subsequent years.
The first report will cover the year 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.
This provision only covers England, but the Act also includes powers for Scottish and Welsh Ministers to make complementary provisions for their jurisdictions.
While elections are imminent in both Scotland and Wales, we trust that the necessary regulations will be adopted as soon as possible, so that assessment of service accommodation in both nations can proceed on a similar timetable to England's.
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is intended to implement Labour Party manifesto commitments to 'overhaul the regulation of our country’s insecure and unjust private rented sector'. The Act only applies to England, and will be brought into force in three phases, with the first phase expected to come into force on 1 May 2026.
While the Act is intended to 'provide tangible benefits for responsible landlords' by providing simpler regulation, as its title implies the primary intention is to protect tenants.
The excellent 'Landlords' Toolkit' page on the Army Families Federation website lists the major changes under the Act, and also explains that
Work continues on reorganising BAFF to change its structure from a registered Company Limited by Guarantee to an ordinary unincorporated association.
The driver for the change is simply cost, specifically the next year's fee quoted by the accountants who act as company secretaries and provide the registered office.
Following and evidence session with her on Wednesday (26 Mar), the House of Commons Defence Committee has recommended the Defence Secretary to proceed with the appointment of his preferred candidate for Armed Forces Commissioner, retired RAF Air Commodore Polly Miller-Perkins.
This year's Armed Forces Day national event will be hosted by Rushmoor Borough Council at Aldershot and Farnborough on Saturday, 27th June 2026, with other events taking place across the UK on or around the same date.
When Armed Forces Day was started by the then Labour government one view was that armed forces personnel were hardly honoured by giving them extra work at the weekend.
An MOD written parliamentary answer to James Cartlidge MP (Cons, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence) reveals that in just under 20 months, nearly sixty thousand applications to join the armed forces were rejected on medical grounds.
The Government proposes, in the Armed Forces Bill currently before Parliament, to establish a new standalone corporate body to be called the Defence Housing Service.
Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) held this week a webinar exploring opportunities for service leavers and veterans in armed policing.
The Labour Party's 2024 General Election manifesto included a commitment to "strengthen support for our Armed Forces communities by putting the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law", and in June 2025 following a Defence Committee report on the Armed Forces Covenant, the Government committed to extending the Covenant’s Legal Duty to all UK Government departments and the devolved administrations.
A Select Committee has been appointed by the House of Commons to consider the Armed Forces Bill 2026, which would be the latest renewal for five years of the Armed Forces Act 2006. The Select Committee has invited submissions.
The Ministry of Defence has announced that for the first time, free, independent legal advice will be available to victim-survivors of rape and sexual offences (allegedly) committed by Service personnel or a civilian subject to Service Discipline that are being investigated by the Service Justice System.
We are working on proposals to change the BAFF Constitution. This would mean discontinuing the formal company registration to save costs. This involves converting to an unincorporated trust, mirroring the current constitution as much as possible.