26 Mar 2009 : Column 559W

26 Mar 2009 : Column 559W

Written Answers to Questions

Thursday 26 March 2009

Defence

Armed Forces: Health Services

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what use his Department makes of services offered by Resolution for serving and former armed forces personnel diagnosed with trauma; and if he will make a statement. [266404]

Mr. Kevan Jones: The MOD does not use the services of Resolution for the treatment of serving personnel. We operate our own 15 military Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs) across the UK and satellite centres overseas, which provide out-patient mental health care for serving personnel. These provide community-based mental health in line with the guidelines and standards set by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Service Frameworks.

The DCMHs provide appropriately tested and effective methods of treatment for service personnel. While we remain in touch with advances and developments in treatment in order to ensure that patients receive the most effective and efficient management, it is essential that these are subject to proper scientific evaluation and comparison with current effective treatments.

When personnel leave military service their health care becomes the responsibility of the NHS. The MOD, the four Health Departments and the Combat Stress charity have been working together with clinical experts and the Health and Social Care Advisory Service (HASCAS) to develop a new model of community based mental health care that will address assessment and treatment of veterans' mental health problems in the long term.

The community mental health model will be led by the NHS. Two-year pilots are operating in Staffordshire and Shropshire, Camden and Islington, Cardiff, Bishop Auckland, Plymouth and Scotland. The pilots are centred on the client and GP with the aim of encouraging access to care through a range of gateways using an evidence-based approach reflecting NHS best practice. If these pilots prove successful the model will be rolled out across the UK. Evaluation of the pilot areas is now under way. In the interim, for areas not yet involved in the pilots, veterans with operational service after 1982 and mental health problems may attend our Medical Assessment Programme based at St. Thomas' Hospital.

Armed Forces: Housing

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2009, Official Report, column 1043W, on armed forces: housing, how many complaints made to Modern Housing Solutions originated in each (a) parish, (b) local authority area and (c) region. [266440]

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Mr. Kevan Jones: The information is not held in the format requested. It is only possible to provide a regional breakdown of complaint origins and this is provided in the following table.

Modern Housing Solution Region	Area	Number
East	Brampton	10
	Chicksands	4
	Colchester	19
	Cottesmore	14
	Marham	5
	Thetford	5
	Wattisham	14
East total		71
West	Abingdon	23
	Brize Norton	14
	Bushey	28
	High Wycombe	12
	Kingston	31
	Uxbridge	20
	Woolwich	5
West total		133
North	Boulmer	2
	Catterick	15
	Waddington	16
	York	9
North total		42
South East	Aldershot	60
	Arborfield	16
	Brompton	12
	Folkestone	9
	Gosport	22
	Portsmouth	20
South East total		139
South West	Bovington	9
	Colerne	1
	Helston	3
	Larkhill	44
	Lympstone	3
	Lyneham	17
	Plymouth	6
	Warmister	10
South West total		93
West	Chester	5
	Haverfordwest	1
	Hereford	5
	St. Athan	2
	Telford	12
	Weeton	5
West total		30
Total		508

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Armed Forces: Recruitment

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what the recruitment (a) target and (b) level achieved was for each pinch point trade in the (i) Army, (ii) Royal Navy and (iii) Royal Air Force in each of the last five years; [265132]

(2) what the recruitment (a) target and (b) level achieved was for each pinch point trade for the (i) Army, (ii) Navy and (iii) Royal Air Force in each of the last five years. [257693]

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Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Information relating to the recruitment into pinch point trades has hitherto been unavailable as the tracking of pinch point trades is a recent development in the management of key personnel. This has in part been rectified but not all of the information is currently available, particularly where pinch points occur in the middle of a rank ranged trade. The recruited figures provided in the following tables include personnel who are promoted into the trade and rank group, rejoined the armed forces or internally transferred.

Royal Navy
			Current shortfall
Operational pinch point trades	Liability	Strength	Number	Percentage	Recruited
Lt Cdr X SM Command Qualified (SM(CQ))	47	45	2	5	13
Lt X SM IWC Qualified and SQEP	40	39	1	3	16
Principal Warfare Officers	359	289	70	20	13
RN Harrier GR7/9 Instructors(1)	9	6	3	33	2
RN Harrier GR7/9 Pilots (including Instructors)(1)	33	24	9	27	0
MCD/MWO Lts	81	47	34	43	8
Strategic Weapons Systems Junior Ranks	110	86	24	22	(2)—
Merlin Pilots	122	78	44	36	8
Merlin Observers	116	71	45	39	14
Merlin Aircrewmen	103	80	23	22	7
Leading Seaman General Warfare	1,105	815	290	26	342
Able Rate Diver	135	95	40	30	39
Lt X SM Advanced Warfare Course Qualified (SQEP)	34	30	4	12	16
Able Rate 1 Seaman	388	291	97	25	389
Able Rate 1 Warfare Specialist	666	635	31	5	(2)—
Able Rate 1 Communications and Information Systems	367	335	32	9	(2)—
Leading Aircraft Controllers	73	41	32	44	8
Royal Marines Other Ranks (Pt-Cpl)	6,525	6,003	522	8	667
Able Rate Warfare Specialist (Sensors Submariner)	178	144	34	17	177
Sea-King and Lynx Avionics Supervisors	348	284	64	18	26
Cat A2 Nuclear Watchkeepers	189	157	32	17	22
Cat B Nuclear Watchkeepers	377	316	61	16	56
L Logs(CS)(P)	328	261	67	25	72
AB Logs (CS) (P)	456	447	9	2	112
L Logs (Pers)	239	222	17	7	103
AB Logs (Pers)	392	391	1	0	99
LS (MW)	70	65	5	8	26
Able Rate Warfare Specialist (Tactical Submariner)	124	116	8	7	35
(1) GR7: Changes to liability and strength. Figures previously presented unfortunately contained administrative errors and reflected some confusion whereby GR7 qualifications have been replaced by GR9 qualifications. Searches within JPA for GR7 qualifications would not flag GR9 qualifications. RN GR9 pilot numbers have just been the subject of very detailed scrutiny. The updated strength figures reflects the growth of the RN Harrier cadre in accordance with the extant JFH manning plan but which unfortunately had not been reflected in the GR7-based OPP figures from last year. Those figures did not fully reflect all GR9 tagged pilots on JPA. (2) Not identifiable figures result from changes to the trade structure or where the specific trade cannot be broken down sufficiently to provide definitive numbers.

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