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20 July 2009 : Column 872W—continued
A breakdown by Service of pilots trained on RAF and Royal Navy helicopter types is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Pilots entering training in one year may not complete training in the same year. Therefore, numbers entering and completing training in each of the financial years may not equate.
Armed Forces: Housing
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many emergency maintenance requests were made for properties occupied by service personnel and their families in each month since October 2007; and what the average time was for requested maintenance to take place. [277258]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The requested information is not held centrally and will take a little time to collate and verify. I will write to the hon. Member.
Substantive answer from Kevan Jones to Lady Sylvia Hermon:
In my answer of 1 June 2009 (Official Report, column 37W) I undertook to write to you with details of how many emergency maintenance requests were made for properties occupied by Service personnel and their families in each month since October 2007; and what the average time was for requested maintenance to take place.
The table below shows the number of emergency repair calls in the UK since October 2007. Like for like information about cases overseas is not held centrally or on a consistent basis.
| UK | |
Information on response times is not held in the format requested. The MOD contract sets the response time for attending emergency repairs as 3 hours, and repairs to remedy or make safe are to be completed within 24 hours.
In the UK, requests for repairs to Service Family Accommodation are classed as an emergency in cases where there is an immediate risk of injury to individuals or damage to property, or where the problem could give rise to serious inconvenience or hardship to occupants. Examples include a total loss of essential facilities or insecure premises.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of units of service (a) single living accommodation and (b) service family accommodation at each location in (i) England, (ii) Wales and (iii) Northern Ireland are in each condition grade. [287911]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Details of single living accommodation (SLA) and service family accommodation (SFA) units broken down by grade and location in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, as at June 2008, the latest date for which figures are available, SLA in each country was at the following "grade", an assessment of the physical condition of the accommodation and "scale".
| Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Total | |
An asset survey of SFA in England and Wales is currently being undertaken to help plan and prioritise the maintenance and improvement of SFA properties more effectively and to target resources at areas of greatest need. As at 1 July 2009, of the 44,000 SFA properties in England and Wales, over 33,500 had been surveyed and were at the following Standard for Condition (SfC).
| SfC | Number of properties | Percentage |
| (1) Less than 1 per cent. | ||
Although NI SFA has not been assessed for its SfC, it is generally considered to be in a good condition.
Armed Forces: Mental Health Services
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much funding his Department has given to each military department of community mental health in each year since their inception; and how much has been allocated to each department in the next two years. [283077]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The MOD has 15 Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs) in the UK (with additional satellite centres in Germany, Cyprus and Gibraltar), which have since 2004 provided out-patient mental healthcare for members of the armed forces. Responsibility for their individual management is shared between the single service commands, and it is not possible to separate out costs from overall unit medical budgets. Each service funds its respective DCMHs differently, with funding provision coming from a number of areas. Due to the number of budgets to which costs would be attributable, any detailed study of DCMH finances would incur disproportionate costs.
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many military psychiatrists of each specialism there are in each of the armed services; and at what location each is working; [283663]
(2) how many service personnel have been referred to a military psychiatrist in each of the last 10 years. [283664]
Mr. Kevan Jones: All military psychiatrists are trained as general psychiatrists. There are currently 15 uniformed consultant psychiatrists working for the Defence Medical Services (DMS), as well as 13 civilian consultant psychiatrists, many of whom are former military members of the DMS. They work in the military Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMH), which provide out-patient mental health care for members of the armed forces. I will place a copy of the specific location of each consultant in the Library.
| Military psychiatrists | Civilian psychiatrists | Total | |
| (1) "Other" includes personnel in staff posts. Note: Two individuals work part-time at two separate DCMHs. These are shown as "0.5" at each location. | |||
Service personnel who have a concern about their mental health will normally be referred in the first instance for assessment and/or treatment at one of the DCMHs, which are manned by multi-disciplinary teams of consultant psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, community mental health nurses and mental health social workers.
Since July 2007 the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) organisation has reported on the psychiatric morbidity of the UK armed forces. Quarterly reports for the whole of 2007 and 2008 are available to view both in the Library of the House and on the DASA website at the following link:
Equivalent verified data prior to 2007 are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The morbidity report shows numbers of new attendances at DCMHs or at the MOD's in-patient contractor during each quarter and the results of the initial mental health assessment. However, the data collected do not indicate whether an individual was seen by a military psychiatrist or by another qualified member of the mental health team.
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