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Gulf War: Veterans

My Lords, I, too, pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Manchester, who has, in his characteristically indomitable way, managed to make sure that this House and, indeed, the wider public have been constantly reminded of the way in which the nation effectively let down those who served on our behalf in the first Gulf War. I pay tribute to him; like him, I have been a member for some years of the Royal British Legion Gulf War group. I pay tribute to the work that the RBL, too, has done over the years to make sure that the veterans, particularly those who have suffered ill health, have been kept constantly in the mind of the Government and of the nation. Unlike the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, I cannot claim any military expertise, and unlike the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, I cannot claim any legal expertise. I am the layman—the man of the street—in this issue, but my long-term commitment stems from the fact that I was brought to realise how dangerous organophosphates were many years ago, when I was first elected to the Commons, by sheep farmers in my constituency in Cornwall and more widely throughout Wales and the south-west of England. It became apparent soon after the invasion in the Gulf War, in 1991-92, that organophosphates had played a role in the problems that subsequently resulted in ill health for our troops. Soon after that war, I questioned the Minister for the Armed Forces, Mr Nicholas Soames—obviously, this was under the previous Government—on what use had been made of OPs. I was told it was minimal. A few Iraqi prisoners of war had been sprayed to delouse them, but that was it. It subsequently became apparent that the Minister had been misinformed. The Ministry of Defence had to admit—and the Minister had to apologise to the House, to me and to other Members of Parliament—that OPs had been very widely used among the Armed Forces who had gone to the Gulf. Indeed, their equipment had been extensively sprayed with OPs obtained locally, without proper protection either for those operatives given that responsibility or for the troops themselves. As has been made apparent this afternoon, and has so often been made apparent, the cocktail of vaccination against the various diseases and infections that were anticipated in the Gulf, with the use of OPs for that extensive delousing operation, has undoubtedly caused a huge problem among our serving personnel. It is estimated that up to a third of those who were deployed into the active area of engagement during those hostilities have suffered from ill health of various types since then. The cocktail of pyridostigmine, the so-called NAPS tablets and the exposure to organophosphates—themselves extremely dangerous chemicals whose origin is in the chemical warfare attempts of the Second World War—clearly has had a very damaging effect on the health of a number of individuals. That came out strongly in the investigation that was undertaken by an independent tribunal, chaired by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, which has been the only effective, comprehensive analysis of what went wrong to have taken place in this country. No proper, independent inquiry has covered the whole field, as has happened in the United States. What is apparent not just from the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Morris, today but from successive exchanges in the House is that we have lagged behind dangerously in the work undertaken both by the US Government and on their behalf. Sadly, we have also not seen an effective response to the 2008 Binns report, which has already been referred to in the debate. Had we done so by now, surely we would have been able to see that the causal connection between the NAPS tablets and OPs was at the root of a considerable number of those suffering with very serious ill health. The latest study, from the American Society of Toxicology, which reported just a few weeks ago, has also been given remarkably little attention in this country, not least by the Government, so far as I can see. It shows indisputably that sick veterans are suffering from organic brain disease as a result of this particular concoction. It is also significant that troops from other nations who were deployed at the same time and did not undergo this programme of vaccinations combined with OPs have not had anything like our levels of ill health thereafter. The critical issue is that while we understand perfectly well that Ministers are anxious not to replicate the work of US organisations, let alone the government-sponsored research activity that has taken place over the past 15 years, surely that puts a responsibility on the United Kingdom Government to take full advantage of that research. It is the worst of all worlds to say that we will not undertake the research because someone else is doing it, and then not take advantage of the results. That, sadly, has been the long-term complaint of our troops who have been made chronically ill by, as it were, the worst friendly fire incident of modern times. It is not that no research has been done, and not that the Government have attempted to duplicate it, but that they simply have not taken advantage of it. It is also true, sadly, that monitoring the ill health of those who have been the most badly affected has not been as substantial as we would like. Only deaths are recorded, which ignores all the morbidity problems that so many face on a daily basis as a result of their service for their country during the Gulf War. We still await a reaction—perhaps we will get one from the Minister today—to the question of why we have not seen a full response to the United States Research Advisory Committee report. It is not good enough simply to say, ““We are still waiting for the Institute of Medicine review””. It has been made only too apparent that that is like waiting for Godot. I believe that the constant experience of those who have been badly affected is that their Government—the Ministry of Defence in particular but more generally as well—have not been as assiduous as the Government of the United States in respect of their ill health. For a whole period, too much emphasis was placed on trying to dispel the idea that there is just one Gulf War syndrome when we all know that a number of specific illnesses seemed to derive from this unfortunate episode. Nobody is asking for huge sums in compensation at this stage. What we are asking for is for the Government to be as upfront as we can and should expect them to be in taking full advantage of the United States research, making it available to those who are the worst affected, and in the process trying to restore trust among these veterans. Surely it is the prime responsibility of any Government that those who serve the nation in the frontline should expect every consideration and respect. The Government must obtain at least the trust of those who in this particular case have been so badly affected through their service to this country.