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Afghanistan and Pakistan

My Lords, 24 months is the harmony period that we should and must respect when troops go into different theatres. We and the military are doing everything possible to respect that period, and in the vast majority of cases it is being respected. We realise the immense pressures on the troops and their families. Recently, we released a Command Paper that dealt with the very issue of support for families. I have recently been with families myself and many of my colleagues are going out to talk to families, to find out what their real needs are and to try to ensure that the various government agencies work together with the military. The military is working with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health to ensure that there is proper support, not just for the soldiers when they come home but for the families, and to ensure that there is childcare so that the wives and partners can go out to work and so on, if they wish to. I pay tribute to the way in which the military itself works with the families. It provides fantastic support, as do organisations such as the Royal British Legion.