Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what research his Department has (a) commissioned, (b) funded and (c) undertaken on the mental health needs of service personnel and veterans since 2010; and what his most recent estimate is of the number of service personnel and veterans with such needs.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) commissions and funds a wide range of research into the mental health of Armed Forces personnel. This work continues to produce high quality evidence upon which we can make considered decisions about the way we manage and treat our personnel.

In particular, we continue to fund the large-scale, ongoing independent study (initially commissioned by the MOD in 2003) from the King's Centre for Mental Health Research (KCMHR), which has become an important source of data on the impact of deployment on the overall health and wellbeing of military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Specific work commissioned under this contract since 2010 includes research into mental health disorders in Reservists; evaluation of a Post-Operational Stress Management programme tailored to Reservists; mental health stigma in the Armed Forces; and a US-funded study into a possible screening tool for mental health issues. Another significant piece of work commissioned and funded by the MOD has been a study of alcohol use disorders, conducted by Cranfield University.

It is not possible to provide the number of serving personnel or veterans with mental health needs at any single point in time. However, statistics show that in financial year 2013-14, 5,040 UK Armed Forces personnel had a new episode of care for a mental disorder at one of the MOD's Departments of Community Mental Health, the majority of whom will have already been successfully treated and returned to work. The medical treatment of ex-service personnel is the responsibility of the UK Departments of Health, and the MOD continues to work closely with them to improve the mental healthcare available.