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.

The Prime Minister has announced plans to write the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant into law:

BAFF spokespeople Weale and Young gave a number of interviews on 9 August in reaction to the reported retention of a relatively small number of tissue samples and body parts under the responsibility of the Special Investigation Branch (SIB), without the required liaison with the relevant next of kin. Mail: MoD secretly kept body parts of troops killed in Afghanistan from grieving families. Update:

BritishForcesNews report 09.08.2012. Their article is reproduced below the video:

Last Friday Plymouth Sutton Linda Gilroy visited the Royal Navy's premier training establishment, HMS Raleigh.

The visit was part of her attachment to the Royal Navy with the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, which is designed to give MPs a better understanding of life in the military.

Across BFG the countdown to drawdown has left soldiers and families facing an uncertain future, as the issue of rebasing is considered by the Ministry of Defence.

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.

British Army morale is now claimed to be at an "unprecedented" low ebb. Soldiers interviewed by the official British Army magazine, quoted in the Daily Telegraph, have expressed "previously unheard" views on the state of the Army.

The Defence Secretary has confirmed, as predicted, that women will be allowed to serve aboard Royal Navy submarines. In a major speech today at the Royal United Services Institute, Mr Hammond said that:

An electoral official who is closely involved in national arrangements for troops voting from Afghanistan, and who has a significant number of service personnel and families in his own local area, has supplied figures on the number of service voters in Afghanistan who registered under the special arrangements and have successfully voted by post in the 2010 General Election.