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Armed Forces: Medical Discharge

Answer

All medical discharges from the Armed Forces are considered on a case by case basis. The Armed Forces have always looked for opportunities to retain injured personnel where they can continue to be usefully employed in areas that they find fulfilling and this continues to be the case. Where this is not possible, the driving imperative is to deliver the best appropriate care and information to ensure that injured personnel make the transition to civilian life smoothly. The following table presents the number of UK regular naval service, Army and RAF personnel medically discharged who have been identified as having been deployed to either Afghanistan and/or Iraq, although the reason for discharge is not necessarily due to injury in either of those theatres. Medical boards recommend medical discharges but do not attribute the principal disability leading to the board to service or deployment. A medical board could take place many months or even years after an event or injury and it is not clinically possible in some cases to link an earlier injury to a later problem which may lead to a discharge. Decisions on attributability to service are made by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency. The processes for administering a medical discharge differ between the three services and as a consequence the numbers have been presented by service rather than annual tri-service totals.

Service	All	Afghanistan² only	Iraq³ only	Iraq and Afghanistan
Naval Service¹
Male	409	74	281	54
Female	52	~	~	~
Army
Male	946	117	756	73
Female	83	~	70	~
RAF
Male	248	13	198
Female	38	0	~	37

"¹ Includes Royal Navy and Royal Marines""² Afghanistan (Op VERITAS October 2001-March 2006, Op HERRICK April 2006-December 2009)""³ Iraq (Op TELIC January 2003-July 2009)""Numbers smaller than five have been suppressed, in line with Office for National Statistics guidelines. Suppressed numbers are represented as ~; where there is only one number smaller than five in any row or column the next smallest number has also been suppressed." "² Afghanistan (Op VERITAS October 2001-March 2006, Op HERRICK April 2006-December 2009)""³ Iraq (Op TELIC January 2003-July 2009)""Numbers smaller than five have been suppressed, in line with Office for National Statistics guidelines. Suppressed numbers are represented as ~; where there is only one number smaller than five in any row or column the next smallest number has also been suppressed." "³ Iraq (Op TELIC January 2003-July 2009)""Numbers smaller than five have been suppressed, in line with Office for National Statistics guidelines. Suppressed numbers are represented as ~; where there is only one number smaller than five in any row or column the next smallest number has also been suppressed." "Numbers smaller than five have been suppressed, in line with Office for National Statistics guidelines. Suppressed numbers are represented as ~; where there is only one number smaller than five in any row or column the next smallest number has also been suppressed."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

2273; 721 c171-2WA

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Armed forces Discharges Injuries Iraq Peacekeeping operations Afghanistan

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk