Management Groups (Hansard, 19 July 2004)

§ Mr. Caplin

The responsibilities of the management groupings requested are listed as follows:

(a) Exercising operational command of the field Army and training designated forces for war and other operations in order to provide military capability in the right place, at the right time in the most cost effective manner.
(b) The Commander Regional Forces maintains, and where possible, enhances the provision of the military capability and infrastructure support required to meet CinC Land's operational requirements.
(c) The Defence Supply Chain provides a range of support functions to enable the British armed forces to carry out operations. These include storing and distributing all the supplies needed by the forces, such as equipment, mail, medical supplies, fuel, clothing, food and ammunition, as well as transporting personnel and freight anywhere in the world.
(d) Primary health care comes under the responsibility of the single services except in Germany (responsibility lies with British Forces Germany Health Care) and on operations (responsibility lies with PJHQ). It covers, general practice, occupational health, public health and environmental medicine as well as rehabilitation services and, to a degree, mental health care. These services are available to all armed forces personnel, and entitled civilians ie dependants of service personnel on overseas postings and UK civilians overseas. The standard of healthcare is at least equal to primary health care available on the NHS.
(e) The role of the Queen Victoria School is to provide, in accordance with the provision of the Royal Warrant and within a stable boarding environment, education in keeping with the curriculum and standards of the Scottish education system so as to enable pupils admitted to the school to proceed to university or other higher or further education institutions, or to enter directly into the armed services, professions, commerce or industry.
(f) The Duke of York's Royal Military School's role is to provide, in accordance with the provisions of the Royal Warrant, secondary education within a stable environment for those admitted to the school so as to enable them to proceed to university or other higher education institutions, or to enter directly into the armed services, professions, commerce or industry.
(g) The Defence Academy is a national and international centre of excellence, providing military and civilian personnel with high quality training and education, primarily at the postgraduate level, and conducts research in fields related to defence. The teaching and research it provides are at all times coherent and responsive both to Defence customer needs and to developing national and international circumstances.
(h) DMSD is responsible for the delivering the required Deployable Medical Operational Capability and a health and healthcare system that maximises the number of service personnel 'fit for task'. The Defence Medical Services provide the armed forces with a comprehensive medical service in peace, war and operations other than war to standards at least equal to the national health service (NHS).
(i) DMETA delivers medical training to specified standards for personnel of the Defence Medical Services to meet the operational requirement. The agency also makes trained personnel available to front line commanders for training, operations and deployment.

Further information on individual defence agencies is available in the Library of the House.