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Armed Forces Bill

My Lords, as I said in Committee, I recognise absolutely the deep importance of properly recording casualty figures. I also said that records are made and kept of all those who are transported out of theatre for medical reasons. I have since provided further information to the noble Earl on the defence medical information capability programme. For the wider benefit of noble Lords today, I inform them that this programme will contain reporting tools enabling the Defence Medical Services to compile and analyse information about the progress of service personnel receiving treatment following injury or illness on operations. It will also identify the types of injury and illness experienced during an operation. This new system is due to enter service progressively from next year and it will be available to deploy on operations from 2008. Given that we already collect and communicate the data on casualty figures and are doing so much more to improve casualty reporting, I ask the noble Earl to withdraw his amendment.