Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce delays processing medical discharges in the Army Health Medical Directorate.

As I explained to you in my letter of 21 March, the delays in processing requests for retrospective medical discharges by the Army are due to a shortage of clinicians, but that a new member of staff had been appointed to assist with these reviews. I wrote to you again on 12 July and advised you that the backlog is now being processed and each individual will be informed of the outcome of their review as soon as it is completed.