Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) serving and (b) former military personnel his Department has confirmed as eligible for compensation from his Department for injuries related to (i) hearing loss and (ii) other ENT issues arising from their service in the Armed Forces.

The number of awards made under either the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) or the War Pension Scheme (WPS) in relation to ‘other injuries related to the ear, nose and throat (ENT)’ is not held due to the broad nature of this area and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Under the War Pension Scheme (WPS) and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS), service personnel who medically discharge and meet certain criteria are automatically considered for compensation. Table 1 shows the number of UK Regular Armed Forces medical discharges with hearing loss listed as the principal ICD-10 cause code on the FMed 23 Medical Board Report.

Please note that these figures are the minimum number of Veterans eligible, as those claiming for hearing loss may have been medically discharged for another reason. For both AFCS and WPS there are circumstances where hearing loss may be considered as one of a number of contributory causes resulting in medical discharge.

Table 1: UK Regular Armed Forces medical discharges with hearing loss listed as the principal ICD-10 cause code, by financial year, numbers

1 April 2010 to 31 March 2022,

Sources: Joint Personnel administration System (JPA), FMed 23, Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP)

1. Includes Royal Navy and Royal Marines

2. In line with the JSP 200 directive on statistical disclosure control, numbers fewer than 5 have been suppressed ([c]).