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Armed Forces: Wounded Personnel

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, for introducing this Question for Short Debate. I remind the Committee of my interest as a serving TA officer. The British Armed Forces have a tradition of being very parsimonious with the issuing of medals. That is partly because we do not want to look like US servicepeople, among whom sometimes very junior soldiers with very limited experience have a chestful of medals. For our Armed Forces, that is a source of amusement, and I suggest that the Minister exercises great caution when responding to the debate. The noble Lord skilfully explained his proposal. He made an attractive proposition and prayed in aid the media campaign. However, the first problem is that some casualties are unnecessary. Let us suppose that in an operational theatre there are two mine incidents causing casualties. In the first, a soldier is seriously injured by a mine. His comrades do exactly and precisely what they are trained to do: they do not move, if at all possible, and they wait for the Royal Engineers Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. If they have to move, they do so very slowly, clearing the path in front of them. They may take 30 minutes to move 40 feet, and all the time they will be able to hear the cries of their comrade, injured and needing help, but if they do that, there will be only one casualty. In the second incident, instead of adhering to their training, they run across the minefield to aid their comrade. It is completely understandable and very courageous, but they set off another mine, thus causing a completely unnecessary casualty. If the Minister follows the suggestion of her noble friend, she will have to explain why the serviceperson who adheres to their training and minimises casualties does not get a medal, while the one who ignores their training, causes additional casualties and exposes others to greater risk does. The Minister will also have to explain how suicides in operational theatres will be treated—a very sensitive issue, I know. A related issue is psychological and mental injuries. Some may not be apparent for some considerable time after the end of the operation. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work of the charity Combat Stress. The third problem is road traffic accidents—still possibly the biggest killer of members of our Armed Forces. When would an RTA death or serious injury attract a medal? What if someone has a road traffic accident while off duty in the UK? I do not think so. How about a road traffic accident that takes place when someone is on exercise in the UK, when the cause of the accident is the victim’s error, or worse? Probably not. These are very difficult judgments of blame and responsibility. On Exercise Saif Sareea in Oman in 2001, in poor visibility due to the dust and the sand, a young soldier accidentally killed himself by driving his four-tonne truck into the back of another. How is that to be treated? It was probably his own fault but he did not die in vain; he died helping to give our country an operational capability. By undertaking Exercise Saif Sareea, we learnt lessons that made Operation TELIC in Kuwait and Iraq much easier, more successful and led to fewer casualties. Some time ago I raised with the Minister’s predecessor, the noble Lord, Lord Drayson, the very poor performance of the Army Medal Office. It is now being operated on a tri-service basis, which is perfectly sensible. My information is that the performance of the Defence Medal Office, as I presume it is now called, is vastly improved. That is very important for morale. The prompt issuing of medals makes servicemen feel that their efforts are appreciated. I am extremely grateful to the Government for making progress on that. I am sorry to be so negative regarding the noble Lord’s suggestion, but the problems of going down this route are insurmountable.