|
On 18 January 2005 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (the Ombudsman) sent a draft report, 'A Debt of Honour' to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence (the MoD). The report dealt with the ex gratia scheme for British groups interned by the Japanese during the Second World War and, in particular, to civilian internees. They are, by definition, elderly, and their number grows smaller.
Professor Hayward, a British citizen who had been interned as a boy, had been refused payment on the ground that neither he, his parents or grandparents had been born in the United Kingdom. He complained to the Ombudsman through his MP, Austin Mitchell. The Ombudsman's investigation found that the Government had introduced the scheme before it had worked out eligibility criteria; it had developed new criteria after the scheme had been introduced without establishing whether they were compatible with those used for earlier payments; and it could not demonstrate that the scheme had been administered correctly. The Ombudsman recommended that the Government should apologise to those affected, review the operation of the scheme, and, if the review showed it appropriate, reconsider the position of Professor Hayward and others in his position. Rather than accept these recommendations in full the MoD refused to conduct a review, or to reconsider.
It was only when we called the Minister for Veterans to give evidence that the MoD discovered that it had not used consistent criteria for granting awards, and belatedly began a review. The MoD still refuses to accept the recommendation that it should reconsider the cases of Professor Hayward and others in a similar position. The Minister has promised to return to the House in early February to make a statement. We hope that in that statement he will recognise that a debt of honour is owed to the British civilians interned by the Japanese, and announce that the rules on eligibility have been changed so that this debt can at last be paid.
|
