Oral Answers to Questions

Luciana Berger Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Francois]

I understand exactly the hon. Lady’s question, and we will lay out our proposals when we publish the White Paper in the spring. At the moment, our instinct is not to legislate and to try and persuade, but we understand the difficulty and will address the issue specifically when we publish the White Paper.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister tell the House how many reservists he expects to be on extended readiness at any one time?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Robathan]

I will. As, regrettably, the decisions on the basing review have been delayed because of the autumn statement, we very much hope to announce the basing review soon and I shall make sure that the hon. Gentleman knows what the results are.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

Medical analysis shows us that reservists are more susceptible than regulars to post-deployment mental health problems and post-traumatic stress disorder. What improvements are being made specifically to post-deployment care for reservists?

[Mr Francois]

There was a time a while ago when reservists returning from theatre did not go through a full decompression package and did not get the full mental health briefing when they returned from theatre. We have now altered that so that reservists do go through the full decompression package and do get a full mental health briefing when they come back from theatre. I will not go into the point about who was in charge when some of these deficiencies existed.