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18 Feb 2008 : Column 79W—continued
| Royal Navy | ||
| Number of requests for medical records of veterans | Number of requests where records not held | |
| Army | ||
| Number of requests for medical records of veterans | Number of requests where records not held | |
| GP/consultant | Personnel | |
| RAF (primary health care) | ||
| Number of requests for medical records of serving personnel | Number of requests where records not held | |
| RAF (veterans) | ||
| Number of requests for medical records of veterans | Number of requests where records not held | |
John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to introduce electronic medical records within the armed forces; and when they will be introduced. [185991]
Derek Twigg: The health records of members of the armed forces are already held electronically, but until recently records could only be accessed at an individual’s local medical centre. As I announced in Colchester on 1 August 2007, the defence medical information capability Programme will improve this capability by providing a single integrated record for each member of the armed forces, which will be accessible at any armed forces medical and dental centre worldwide, and which will also eventually be linked to NHS IT systems. The implementation of this programme is under way, beginning with two pilot sites in February 2007. The system has now been rolled out to 140 medical centres in the Army and the RAF in the UK. Roll-out to all remaining medical and dental centres, including the Royal Navy and Defence sites overseas, is due to be complete by early 2009. Roll-out to deployed operational facilities, both on land and on HM ships, is due to begin in late 2008 and should be complete by the end of 2009.
Armed Forces: Offices
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how officers OF 1 to 10 and other ranks OR 1 to 9 relate to 2nd lieutenant through to general and private to warrant officer on the rank structure section of the Defence Analytical Services Agency TSP 09. [170020]
Derek Twigg: The information requested is available on page 3 of TSP 9. A copy of this is available at
Armed Forces: Pay
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of the latest edition of his Department’s Local Overseas Allowances Survey report. [185713]
Derek Twigg: Analysis of the most recent survey is currently in progress so figures are not yet available.
No formal report has previously been produced.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library copies of his Department’s (a) main manning evidence and (b) mid-year update manning evidence supplied to the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body for each financial year from 1997-98. [185716]
Derek Twigg: All available information on the manning evidence supplied to the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body from 1997-98 is being collated and will be placed in the Library in due course.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of each of the tables containing data on (a) medical officers and dentists, (b) nursing staff and (c) allied health professionals supplied to the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body in respect of each financial year from 1997-98. [185717]
Derek Twigg: All available information on medical officers and dentists, nursing staff and allied health professionals supplied to the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body from 1997-98 is being collated and will be placed in the Library in due course.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in which years his Department has staged implementation of the recommendations of the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body since 1977. [185950]
Derek Twigg: Since 1977, the Government have staged the implementation of the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body (AFPRB) recommendations on seven occasions, but when this has occurred they have always been effected within the same financial year. Staging occurred in 1984, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Armed Forces: Personnel Management
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will hold discussions with those responsible for the operation of the Joint Personnel Administration system on marrying Territorial records with mobilised records. [185452]
Derek Twigg: There are no known systemic problems with the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system affecting reservists. However, there are two issues that are currently being addressed.
At present, there is no provision via the JPA system for pension contributions to be paid by the MOD to the private or occupational pension schemes of volunteer reservists while they are mobilised. The facility to do this will be incorporated in the next major release of JPA software scheduled for March 2008. Until the automated solution is delivered in March, a manual process is in place.
The second issue relates to a failure in some instances for action to be taken to inform the JPA system that a reservist has been mobilised. The implications of this are that any deductions that need
to be made while reservists are mobilised may be taken in error from their “attendance-based” pay account, rather than their full-time pay account that becomes active while they are mobilised. Instances of this are rare, and I am confident that ongoing education and training of Human Resources administrators will eradicate the problem.
Armed Forces: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the evaluation of the trauma risk management pilot programme will be (a) completed and (b) published. [185988]
Derek Twigg: The trauma risk management (TRiM) study was conducted by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research and the Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health on behalf of (and funded by) the MOD. The study is currently being written up for submission to peer-reviewed academic journals.
Armed Forces: Protective Clothing
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether weight-dispersion boots are available to British forces in theatres where mines are prevalent; and to which armed forces personnel they are made available. [181789]
Des Browne: Generally, UK armed forces only remove unexploded ordnance and mines that are a direct threat to operations, and they are provided with the equipment they need in order to do so safely. Weight-dispersion boots are not made available as these are best suited to use in humanitarian de-mining operations. While there were experiments of a similar capability in 2000, the boots were assessed as unsuitable for high-intensity operations where soldiers require the ability to breach minefields quickly and then revert immediately to normal combat operations.
Armed Forces: Recruitment
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy, (c) Royal Air Force and (d) Royal Marines recruitment targets were in each of the last 10 years; and what the actual recruitment to each service was in each year in that period. [186779]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The following table shows the actual recruitment to the UK regular forces(1) from civilian life as a percentage of recruitment targets for financial years 1997-98 to 2006-07.
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