---

Gulf War Illnesses

My Lords, we have had an interesting, if brief, debate. The one point that unites everyone in this House is the congratulations expressed to my noble friend Lord Morris on obtaining the debate but also in his sheer dogged persistence over many years in pursuing this campaign and starting it when, as noble Lords have mentioned, it was not a popular or fashionable campaign. As has been said, in those early days many people trivialised the issue and assumed that this was a stress-related illness. I was alarmed by the figure that was quoted by the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, from the press, in the context of their derogatory remarks about people who suffer from it. Having praised my noble friend Lord Morris, perhaps I can say that I was not too delighted that he reminded people how long ago it was that I first fought an election. We will leave that matter to one side. I would like to clarify and explain the Government’s position on Gulf veterans’ illnesses. It is, as other noble Lords have pointed out, a sad truth that some service personnel have been affected by ill health due to their time in the Armed Forces. I am sure that I speak for everyone in this House as well as everyone in Government in saying that we must make it clear that we are not only aware of the sacrifices they have made but that we also accept a duty of care to them. That is important and something I want to emphasise, because the Government take that duty of care very seriously. It is manifested in various forms, from research to better understand some of the conditions that our veterans suffer from, to medical assessments and NHS treatment for those who need it. I will later touch on another aspect, financial support, which is provided through MoD war pensions and Armed Forces occupational pension schemes. We recognise that veterans may have particular needs. That is why in the Service Personnel Command Paper—which, it was mentioned earlier, was the first of its kind—we have committed ourselves to raising awareness among healthcare professionals in particular so that the needs of those who have served in the Armed Forces are met. The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig of Radley, mentioned veterans’ organisations. There has been a breakthrough, which I know that he welcomes. I hope that he will have confidence in that because there is now a separate single point of contact for veterans. The committee that he asked about has met on two occasions already and is due to meet again soon. That will certainly lift the whole profile of the help that is available for veterans and I hope it will be constructive to all veterans. In this debate, however, we are talking about a specific group of veterans—those who served in the Gulf in the 1990s—who have particular concerns about their health. We heard graphic descriptions about that this afternoon. I would like to take a moment to remind your Lordships that one of the first things that the Labour Government did after taking office in 1997 was to commission new research in this area. That was a mark of the serious intention on the part of Ministers from that date to take this issue seriously and try to find out what we could. That is why we have spent around £9 million funding expert medical research in this area. That research has come to the same conclusion as the independent Medical Research Council report from 2003, which looked at all the UK and international research into these issues. The conclusion was that, "““there is no evidence from the UK or international research of a single syndrome related specifically to service in the Gulf””." Of course, research work continues. Mention has been made today of the United States Institute of Medicine, which is currently considering the report published by the US Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses. We look forward to seeing the outcome of that review. It is reasonable to have a review of the evidence that is presented by a set of experts. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Morris on having such a direct input into that committee, which shows the respect in which he is held on an international basis. We have a copy of that report in the MoD, and people are looking through it. I read the executive summary because I did not feel competent to read all the technical, scientific and medical expertise in the main body of the document. It is important that we wait until we have time to examine it fully. The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, said that it was reasonable to assess that report properly. It is a review of much of the evidence that has been put forward. However, it is important to bear in mind a couple of basic facts, not least that this report does not in itself identify a discrete pathological entity that is Gulf War syndrome. In some respects, therefore, we have not drawn the line in terms of definitions and in terms of causation. Obviously, we have to be willing to consider any credible new evidence, but the overwhelming consensus at the moment is that there are still too many symptoms and variations to have a syndrome according to the strict medical definition. Other noble Lords mentioned that as well. As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, said, the MoD changed its approach and acknowledged that the phrase ““Gulf War syndrome”” had become widespread, and we therefore reviewed our position in terms of the use of it and accepted it as an umbrella term to address the concerns of veterans who felt that there was a direct link between their service and their illness, and that that had not previously been recognised.