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Armed Forces Personnel

I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Heaven loves a trier, and I got further than I thought that I might. Given the statement of 11 December, the Minister's remarks today, and the fact that defence will not feature in the Government's economic stimulus, the men and women of our armed forces will be awaiting the conclusion of the Gray review and the Ministry of Defence's current planning round in March with trepidation. I should like to turn to the subject of combat stress. On 12 January, the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones) said that he was ““shocked and surprised”” that I had not understood what his Government had been doing for veterans with combat stress. I pay tribute to everything that has been done for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, but the Minister's apparent complacency shocked and surprised me. What did not surprise me so much was the British Medical Association's briefing note that was circulated in advance of today's debate, which featured combat stress prominently. The charity, Combat Stress, has rightly pointed out that the Minister's rebuttal relied on the research programme run by King's college, London. The work of Professor Wessely is very important, but the Minister should know that it is a long-term population study, and that it does not necessarily reflect the scale of mental distress sustained on intense operations. The Defence Analytical Services Agency, in its explanatory notes to the data on which I think the Minister was relying on 12 January, sounds the same cautionary note. I have two requests for the Minister that touch on mental health. First, will he look at the burden of proof and the time limit for claims under the armed forces compensation scheme? Unlike in the war pensions scheme, the burden of proof lies with the claimant, and claims are timed out after five years. My hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) rightly raised that point earlier. The Minister will understand that mental illness is often far more difficult to relate to a specific insult than physical injury, and that it can manifest itself many years after the provoking incident. It seems to me that the occupationally mentally ill will be relatively disadvantaged by the new arrangements, and I am sure that that is not the Minister's intention.