---

Gulf War Illnesses

My Lords, I am not trying to make judgments about what would happen in a court of law; I am trying to explain the complexities of the evidence, the fact that it is therefore right that experts in this field should be looking at this, and why peer review is important. I am urged to look at the time, but perhaps I may deal with one other extremely important issue—I hope we can all agree that it is one of the important things to come out of the report. It concerns the approach that we should all take to veterans with this kind of illness. The section entitled ““Research Priorities and Recommendations”” says that the primary goal should be, "““improving the health of Gulf War veterans””." The committee recommends that the, "““highest priority be given to research directed at identifying beneficial treatments for Gulf War illness””." That is one of the things on which we must concentrate attention. We are working to ensure that the right medical services are available for veterans and that general practitioners know that they have very serious responsibilities. Those should be among our primary goals. Although it is difficult to be absolutely precise about causation, and people will disagree on the weight of the evidence, there are things that we can do. One is to ensure that the war pensions and benefits to which veterans are entitled are paid. I wish to defend the statement of my noble friend Lord Tunnicliffe. He said that payments should be made in accordance with disability or injury and not on the basis of causation or, indeed, on the basis of the label put on any illness. Instead, payments should be made on the basis of need and the level of disability. It is also important that, looking forward, we concentrate our efforts on ensuring that the treatment and support available are as good as possible. My honourable friend in another place, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary with responsibility for veterans, recently met the organisation responsible. He is hoping to build on that meeting and to work through one or two of the problems, such as the funding of specific types of research, and I hope that something positive can come out of that. However, I assure my noble friend and all Members of your Lordships’ House that the Government will look at the evidence very carefully and that we will ensure that it is considered by the right people. I am very pleased that we have been able to have this debate and I know that everyone in this House will take this issue seriously.