Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of mental health care provision for armed forces veterans.

The Department and other bodies look at these issues regularly. Data and progress of NHS England’s Veterans Mental Health Transition Intervention and Liaison Service and Complex Treatment Service is presented to the Ministry of Defence/UK Departments of Health Partnership Board, Joint Commissioning Group and the Cabinet Office led Covenant Reference Group. Both services are also continually assessed by NHS England.

In England, as well as these veteran specific services, veterans are able to access mainstream mental health services. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies dataset reports annually and data indicates that over 20,000 veterans are utilising this avenue with very positive outcomes, often better than the general population.