Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will fund further research relating to suicide amongst (a) serving personnel and (b) veterans.

As the responsible Minister for leading the work on the mental health of all our serving and former Serving personnel, I take this matter extremely seriously.

The Ministry of Defence continues to monitor the long-term impact of operational deployments. A study mapping the mortality rates and causes of death, including suicide, of military personnel who served since 2001, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is underway. The focus of this study is to understand the long-term impact of military service. It will compare findings with the general population.

The Defence Suicide Register has also been launched. This is an ongoing Defence-led project to provide an evidence-base specific to Serving personnel by better understanding circumstances surrounding individual deaths. It draws together information from multiple data sources across Defence, enabling internal analysis across organisational boundaries to inform evidence-based prevention, intervention, and postvention activity.

Research suggests that the risk of suicide in our veteran population as a whole is no higher than that in the general population. However, it suggests that certain younger cohorts of veterans may be at a higher risk. The Office for Veterans’ Affairs is working across Government and with civil society to ensure veterans have access to the health support they need.