§ Mr. StinchcombeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many ex-service people have been diagnosed as suffering from Gulf War Syndrome to date. [64996]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonThere is no central record of the health of UK Gulf veterans, either for those still serving or for those who have left the Armed Forces. However, just under 3,000 of some 53,000 UK Service personnel who deployed to the Gulf in 1990–91 have so far sought a referral to the Ministry of Defence's Medical Assessment Programme (MAP), which was established in 1993 to provide as full a diagnosis as possible to veterans who are concerned about their health. A paper describing the clinical findings from the first 1,000 patients examined at the MAP was published in the British Medical Journal on 30 January this year. A copy of the paper is available in the Library of the House. The latest scientific evidence suggest that UK Gulf veterans report more illness than other comparable groups, but does not support the existence of a unique illness or syndrome.