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Gulf War: Veterans

I can assure the noble Lord that we did learn from the events of 1991, one lesson being the importance of much better record-keeping. I can confirm that Gulf War syndrome inasmuch as it exists—that is, the higher propensity which we acknowledge of the occurrence of a certain range of symptoms—did not recur in subsequent engagements. There has been a general statement that we have done little research. The MRC has undertaken a lot of research, about £9 million-worth. I was asked if we have done any since the publication of the RAC. No, we have not, because we reached a position where we felt that the only useful ongoing research was that which related to rehabilitation. The suggestion that we have not been concerned to learn from what has been happening in this community is simply not true. The medical assessment programme based at St Thomas’s Hospital was open to all service men and women who took part in the Gulf War, and some 3,000 veterans were seen by the MAP as a result. We have been very sensitive to the importance of learning from that and ensuring that any symptoms were tracked. I was also asked about the number of past cases. In 2007 the Government conducted an exercise looking at some 1,375 claimants of a war pension or a gratuity. The total number of veterans in receipt of disability benefit that is not necessarily anything to do with Gulf War syndrome per se is some 4,600. The Government’s position on Gulf War veterans has been stated on many occasions. Please be assured that we do not ignore our veterans, but I regret that I am unable to comment on the report from the Institute of Medicine because it has not yet been released. However, I understand that work has been concluded and the findings will be published on 8 April. MoD officials will consider any findings carefully. One of the first things that the Government initiated on coming to power was to commission new research into Gulf War-related illness. As I said, we have to date spent some £9 million on that research. This research has arrived at the same conclusions as the independent Medical Research Council report in 2003; namely, that there is no evidence from the UK or international research that a single syndrome is related specifically to service in the Gulf. The anticipated US report is expected to summarise and report on peer-reviewed scientific literature published since the institute’s last report in 2006. The Research Advisory Committee report on Gulf veterans’ illnesses, which was published in 2008, falls within this time-frame. Noble Lords will be aware that the Vaccines Interaction Research Programme was an in-depth examination of the potential adverse effects of the combination of medical countermeasures administered to troops during the 1991 Gulf conflict. The overwhelming evidence from the programme was that the combination of vaccines and tablets offered to UK forces would not have had an adverse health effect. I know that exposure to organophosphate pesticides and the use of nerve agent pre-treatment tablets during the Gulf conflict is of concern to some veterans, and the MoD continues to monitor ongoing research in these areas. However, the overwhelming evidence from scientific literature shows that there were no adverse effects following the administration of NAPS tablets or any evidence of acute exposure to OP pesticides during the deployment of UK troops in the Gulf in 1991. I turn to the events in Khamisiyah. The accidental release of nerve agents provides clear evidence of why it was so important that the Ministry of Defence provided UK service personnel with NAPS tablets prior to the start of the operation in the Gulf. In January 2005, the Ministry of Defence announced the publication of a paper entitled Review of Modelling of the Demolitions at Khamisiyah in March 1991 and Implications for UK Personnel. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate work undertaken by the US Department of Defense which modelled the distribution of nerve agents released by the US demolition of Iraqi chemical weapons at the end of the Gulf conflict and discussed its implications for UK personnel. Approximately 9,000 UK service personnel may have been within the area of possible exposure, with the closest some 130 miles from Khamisiyah. However, the level of nerve agent would have been too low to have any biologically detectable effect. We are always willing to consider credible new evidence. The overwhelming consensus of the scientific and medical community is that there are too many symptoms for the ill health reported by veterans to be characterised as a syndrome according to the strict medical definition. However, we acknowledge that that the phrase ““Gulf War syndrome”” has become widespread. We reviewed our position and accepted it as an umbrella term.