If you have a residential address in the UK, your household should have received recently, or be about to receive, an annual Voter Registration Form.

The British Armed Forces Federation AGM on 28 September 2013 endorsed the Federation's published plan for its considered neutral/impartial approach to the 18 Sep 2014 Referendum on Scotland's constitutional future.

Following a change to the Referendum Bill currently being considered in the Scottish Parliament, the 16 and 17 year old children of relevant service families outwith Scotland WILL be able to vote in the Scottish independence referendum on 18 September, 2014.

The change will apply to eligible teenagers living with a relevant service voter parent in England, Wales or Northern Ireland - not only those overseas.

It appears however that service children will only be allowed to register and vote in the referendum if their service parent is themselves registered to vote in Scotland as a service voter.

Timed to coincide with the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Hammond, the Secretary of State announced a new ‘Forces Help to Buy’ scheme to help personnel buy their first home. The £200m trial will start from April 2014 for the next 3 years and will offer Regular personnel loans of up to 50% salary, capped at £25,000, interest-free and repayable over a 10-year period.

The House of Commons Defence Committee has just released the findings of its inquiry into the defence implications of Scottish Independence, in the event of a Yes vote in the referendum.

The scope of the Committee's report includes a number of personnel-related issues, such as

• Interests of serving UK military personnel
• Future recruitment
• Participation in the referendum

Further to BAFF's recent good news about Lib Dem support for the right of representation for ordinary personnel, more detail has now emerged from a BFBS ForcesNews interview with former defence minister Sir Nick Harvey MP.

The Liberal Democrat party at its national conference in Glasgow this week [September 2013] has confirmed its support for organised representation of armed forces personnel.

The British Army Recovery Capability (ARC) is a fantastic capability but it would appear, only PARTIALLY works.  Firstly, demand outstrips the supply, and second, access to Personnel Recovery Units (PRUs) is a ‘Command Led Process’.

The British Army Recovery Capability (ARC) is a fantastic capability but it would appear, only PARTIALLY works.  Firstly, demand outstrips the supply, and second, access to Personnel Recovery Units (PRUs) is a ‘Command Led Process’. 

It is problematic firstly because the Unit Commanders’ priority is to prepare for Operations.  However, they must also triage their wounded, injured and sick (WIS) deciding which have the greatest need and therefore nomination to a PRU. They are then expected to effectively manage those that remain.  Second, the acceptance by the ARC Assignment Board of an injured Service man or woman to a PRU will be driven by PRU capacity. There are 154 beds in the 11 PRUs and 1000 places. So no matter what the need, if there are no spaces, management remains at Unit level. 

Which commander is prepared to stand up and tell those s/he leads that in the event of their injury, these are the odds they will be playing with, but not just them, their families too. The purpose of the ARC was to alleviate Unit Commanders of WIS management, for sound reasons, but this is only happening in part and the problems of the past systems (Y-List, SAM) remain and increase, for many WIS and their families.

A member has asked us if we can feature this song by Mr Peter Knight of Coonabarabran, Australia. We understand that Peter's father was a wartime navigator with Bomber Command RAF, based at RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire. The song has been around for a while and is sung in this version by Grant Luhrs.