---

Defence in the UK

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend. Indeed, our servicemen and women in the Territorial Army experience a further, unique set of problems. When a member of the TA returns home from operations, there is little or no formal support group or structure to fall back on, or camaraderie with fellow troops who have had similar experiences. There are no familiar faces on a base and no friends to meet for a pint to talk about what they have gone through. More often than not, TA service members simply return to their civilian jobs and go back to family life without the safety net apparatus that is provided by being a member of the regular forces. They are at particular risk. We have a duty to recognise that and put in place mechanisms to guarantee their safety. The important point that my hon. Friend raises is that the increased use of the TA means that there is likely to be an increasing rate of growth of those problems in future. We are developing a problem for our forces as a whole, but the TA in particular represents a potential mental health time bomb that, in many ways, we are not prepared to deal with.