Asked by: Baroness Sherlock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among (1) serving members of the British Armed Forces, and (2) former service personnel.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Defence Statistics publishes annual reports on mental health in the UK Armed Forces. The most recent of these shows that, in the financial year 2017-18, 299 UK Armed Forces personnel had an initial assessment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at a Ministry of Defence (MOD) Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH). This represents 0.2% of the total Armed Forces population, or 2 in 1,000 personnel.
Neither the Ministry of Defence nor the Department of Health hold equivalent verified data on the number of former Service personnel who were diagnosed with a mental disorder (including PTSD) after leaving service. However, the Government is committed to ensuring that ex-Service personnel receive effective care and treatment through the NHS, and in his Budget on 29 October the Chancellor announced an additional £10 million to support veterans' mental health projects. The £10 million will be distributed to projects throughout the UK by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust under an open application programme to be called the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund.