---

Armed Forces: Future Defence Policy

I am coming on to answer the noble Lord’s point. The noble Earl, Lord Onslow, the noble Lords, Lord Freeman and Lord Astor, and the noble Baroness, Lady Park, have all raised serious concerns relating to combat stress and, in particular, suicide of former members of our Armed Forces. I can confirm that the Ministry of Defence has commissioned a study by Manchester University into the subject. From 1996 to 2005, over 230,000 individuals left the forces; 224 have since died by suicide, which is 224 too many. However, the researchers found that, while overall rates were not significantly different from those in the general population, there is a particular problem among young men, especially those who are unmarried and who served for only a short time. The present study was unable to provide an explanation for this, but I can assure the House that all service leavers are entitled to a resettlement package to ease their transition from service life. We are doing further work to look into this matter. The noble Lord, Lord King, asked about the role of Saudi Arabia. The future of Afghanistan depends on the entire international community, including Afghanistan’s partners, engaging in delivering progress within this theatre. Saudi Arabia’s support for Afghanistan is one key component of that and we welcome its engagement. The noble Lord, Lord Lee, asked about the numbers of frigates and destroyers. The combined force of our destroyer and frigate fleet today on operations is 23. The noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, asked about aerials. We have developed flexible mountings to address the problem that he identified on his visit. The prototypes are currently being evaluated. The noble Lord, Lord Burnett, spoke about the importance of maintaining the numbers of teeth arms while we are under such operational pressure. As the noble Lord, Lord Burnett, knows, I saw for myself during a recent visit to Royal Marines Poole the tremendously impressive effectiveness and capability of our Royal Marines, but during that visit I also saw some worrying evidence of the poor quality of married living quarters—a matter that I am looking into.