Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to support female service personnel who have served in front-line roles.

Women are a crucial part of the Armed Forces community, and the Government is committed to ensuring their needs and experiences are better understood, and that they have access to the best possible support and opportunities.

There is a well-established policy and process to provide support to all Service personnel who have served in front line roles. This is intended to address any pressure encountered on operations, as a result of day-to-day work or from exposure to individual risk or traumatic situations that may result in physical and/or mental ill health. The process provides support before, during and immediately post-deployment, with a follow-on phase which addresses the longer-term management of Service personnel.

These are designed to reduce the likelihood of personnel developing stress or mental health problems throughout the deployment by providing information and support pre-deployment, monitoring personnel for signs of difficulty, providing support and conducting Trauma Risk Management during the deployment, and by providing decompression, unit briefings and offering support to personnel in the post-deployment phase.

Commanders continue to monitor personnel throughout their career and support will be provided months or even years after a deployment has finished.

When personnel leave the Armed Forces, mental health support continues to be provided by the NHS through programmes such as Op Courage, which is a mental health specialist service designed to help those due to leave the Armed Forces, Reservists, Veterans and their families.