Chelmsford City Racecourse Remembrance Raceday

Saturday 9th November

After the success of our first Remembrance Raceday in 2023, we are delighted to announce our event for this year on Saturday 9th November.  

On this raceday, we will once again be offering current and past serving members of the Armed Forces two complimentary adult tickets to come to the raceday, children under 18s are free and welcome to attend as well.

 

We have not as yet confirmed the running order for the day, but we hope that this will be on a similar basis to last year with a wreath laying ceremony, military band, private marque for those with the complimentary Armed Forces tickets.  Last year’s event was a great success and we hope to build on this for 2024.

 

We are now accepting applications for tickets, on completion of the attached booking form, with the deadline to apply Tuesday 5th November.  

Application Form

 

Scotland’s Census – UK Armed Forces veterans

 

A total of 176,100 UK Armed Forces veterans were living in Scotland at the last census, according to new statistics from National Records of Scotland.

It is the first time census data has been collected on veterans living in the country.

The figure means 3.9% of people aged 16 and over at the time of the census had previously served in the UK Armed Forces. The census in England and Wales found a similar percentage (3.8%) said they had served.

In Scotland, half of all veterans (50.4%) were aged 65 and over and just under one third (30.6%) were aged 50 to 64.

Director of Census Statistics for NRS Jon Wroth-Smith said:

“This is the first time Scotland’s Census has ever collected data on veterans. It provides a unique insight enabling governments, local authorities and charities to shape support for veterans and their families.”

“The high percentage of veterans in the oldest groups is explained by war service up to 1948 and National Service which operated from 1939 to 1960. Around one in five people aged 85 and over had previously served in the UK Armed Forces. If we look specifically at males, we see that over half of all males aged 85 and over had previously served.”

While the majority of veterans in Scotland were male (88%), the census recorded 20,600 female veterans across Scotland.

The local authorities with the highest percentage of the population that were veterans tended to be areas with larger military bases, showing some veterans stay in the area where they were based.

Moray has the highest with 9.0% of the population aged 16 and over having previously served. In City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City council areas veterans make up a smaller proportion of the population but they are among the areas with the largest numbers of veterans. Fife, the third biggest council area by population, had the highest number of veterans with 17,200.

6.7% of households in Scotland included at least one UK Armed Forces veteran. This data helps direct support not just to them but to their families too.

The majority of veterans in Scotland (72%) served in the regular UK Armed Forces.  A further 22% served in the reserve Armed Forces and 6% served in both.

Later in the year NRS will release census data on further topics including housing, employment and health. In the winter a new tool will be added to the website allowing the census data on various topics to be analysed for particular groups of people like veterans.

Scotland’s Census – UK Armed Forces veterans | Scotland’s Census (scotlandscensus.gov.uk)


 

 

An Employers' Guide to Hiring Veterans 

This guide offers advice and guidance to employers on how to recruit, retain and support the career development of veterans. 

There are over 2 million veterans in the UK, with over 13,000 individuals leaving the Armed Forces each year. The majority of those leaving service are of working age, in search of securing the next step in their civilian career after service

National Insurance Relief

Another benefit of hiring veterans is the 12 months of National Insurance contribution holiday available to those employing a veteran in their first civilian position after service. Find out more online about your eligibility as an employer and how to claim this relief: 

Claim National Insurance contributions relief for veterans as an employer - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
 
 
Newsletters

Veterans Scotland Newsletter

To read the latest issue and past issues of the veterans Scotland Newsletters follow the link below:

OSCR Reporter

Read the latest issue and past issues of the OSCR Reportter Newsletters  here

FiMT Reports

Copies of the FiMT reports are available on their website.

Reports - Forces in Mind Trust (fim-trust.org)

The Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment)

The Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment) VJ 75 film

Link Here

Monarch Study FAQs

We are pleased to include information for Veterans Scotland members this week on an important data project in our sector led by the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research.  The third Frequently Asked Questions document linked [here – Monarch FAQs] explains more about the MONARCH Study (The Map Of Need Aggregation and ResearCH study) and progress since the last update.