Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's data protection policy is on (a) surveillance footage and (b) monitoring of on-line networking sites of people who have served in the armed forces and are compensation claimants; and if he will make a statement.

Surveillance in public places only, and/or monitoring of publicly available social on-line networks, is occasionally undertaken to help to establish the true extent of injuries alleged in common law compensation claims in cases where there is a reasonable suspicion about the veracity of a claim or where medical evidence suggests that the claimant's disability is wholly inconsistent with the type of injury. Claims which are found to be grossly exaggerated are either repudiated or settled at a greatly reduced level of damages in line with the true nature of the injury.

Surveillance evidence, which is usually in the form of video footage accompanied by a written report, will be disclosed to the claimant's legal representatives, with a copy placed on the case file, where it will remain until the file is destroyed in accordance with normal file destruction policy.