Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what use his Department has made of the National Wellbeing Index introduced by the Office for National Statistics since its introduction in 2011; and what the principal policies are that his Department has introduced to improve the wellbeing of Britain's armed forces and veterans since 2010.

The Office for National Statistics well-being questions were added to the Civil Service ‘Your Say’ Survey, which is sent to civil servants and some Service personnel, and the ‘Armed Forces Continuous Attitudes Survey’ (the main source of data on Service personnel’s attitudes and experiences) in 2012.

The resulting data is analysed to understand how respondents’ experiences vary between different groups and what shapes these experiences. This evidence, and data such as the New Employment Model and the Armed Forces Covenant plays an important part in developing policies to assess Service personnel wellbeing and in tracking progress.

A Defence People Health and Wellbeing Strategy is being developed for 2015-16, as part of the Defence People Health and Wellbeing Plan.

The vast majority of service leavers are fit and well. Veterans with health concerns enjoy the same excellent standard of healthcare from the NHS as other UK citizens, and receive priority treatment, subject to clinical need of others, for conditions resulting from service.