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Armed Forces: Severely Wounded Personnel

My Lords, this is a debate about severely injured service personnel, but before I turn to the points that have been made, I am sure that the whole House will wish to join me in offering sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who have been killed on operations in the recent past: Marine Jason Mackie, Fusilier Petero Suesue, Sapper Jordan Rossi, Lance Corporal Robert Martin Richards, Lance Corporal Kieron Hill, Lance Corporal Nigel Moffett, Corporal Stephen Bolger and Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher. It is appropriate that we remind ourselves of the ultimate sacrifice that they have each made, and our sympathies are certainly with their families this evening. This is a salutary reminder of the very harsh consequences of the operations in which we are involved, and of course one of the consequences of those operations is the issue of injured service personnel that the noble Lord, Lord Burnett, has raised today. The whole House has expressed its appreciation to him for securing this short debate to ensure that we are taking the right steps to provide opportunities for service personnel who are severely wounded or disabled while on active service. Noble Lords have mentioned the need to help them remain with their corps, their regiment or their units, in administrative or clerical roles, if they cannot return to their former duties. We are very clear that that is a desirable objective. It is also important that the House realises that we do not think that there is one approach that fits every individual, because these people should be treated as individuals, and the response should be tailored to their needs as much as possible. We accept absolutely our responsibility to provide effective medical and health support to our people. The support to personnel injured on operations is, I think everyone agrees, of an excellent standard. That is not just my view. The National Audit Office noted in its May report that: ""The Department’s success in delivering lifesaving medical treatment is underlined by the number of ‘unexpected survivors’ following the most severe of injuries"." Noble Lords have mentioned that those who might have died just five or 10 years ago are being kept alive today by the remarkable services that we now have. We should all pay tribute to the medical teams who are responsible and those who have devised the advances that allow those people to survive. For hospital treatment, we rely almost exclusively on National Health Service facilities. Serious casualties need, and receive, advanced levels of care across a wide range of medical disciplines that can found only in a major trauma hospital. In addition, by working in the National Health Service alongside civilian colleagues, our medical staff gain the broadest and most up-to-date training and experience, which helps to save lives on military operations. The noble Lord, Lord Patten, and other noble Lords mentioned mental health care, which is extremely important. We provide comprehensive mental health support to our casualties, including military mental health staff in theatre, at Selly Oak Hospital where most of our seriously wounded are treated, and at military departments of community mental health across the country. Real progress has been made to what, across the board, was a Cinderella service in terms of something that people did not like to talk about. There have been many breakthroughs. Mention was made of Combat Stress. In 2007-08 the MoD paid that society £3.2 million for fees for the care of individual war pensioners, which was a substantial increase and which really helps that organisation to do the work that is necessary. We are making very significant progress in that area.