Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential benefit to the armed forces of offering applicants a mental health check prior to joining.

There are a number of medical conditions, including mental health conditions, that are a bar to Service and these will come to light during existing pre-entry health checks. Evidence suggests that additional mental health screening would not be an effective way of identifying those individuals who might develop mental illness in Service.