Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment she has made of the effect of shortages in Defence Medical Service doctors on the ability to deploy forces.

Against a backdrop of medical workforce shortfalls nationally and across the global health care sector, we also have a number of specialty areas where we are experiencing consultant shortfalls. These are being monitored and addressed through normal workforce control mechanisms. To date this has not affected our ability to deploy forces on any directed tasks or operations.