Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on armed forces veterans of the removal NHS England funding for the Combat Stress programme.

There have been a number of improvements and developments in the provision of veterans’ mental health services across England, with the launch of the NHS Veterans’ Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service in 2017 and the launch of the Veterans’ Mental Health Complex Treatment Service in April 2018. These two services are the result of a programme of work that reviewed veterans’ mental health services and proactively sought the views of veterans and their families through a national engagement.