§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
What evidence apart from death certificates was used for the mortality section of the epidemiological study into morbidity and mortality of Gulf War veterans conducted by Professor Nicola Cherry of Manchester University. [HL1811]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)The evidence used for the Manchester University mortality study is a matter for the researchers. The sources used will be detailed in a paper which has been accepted for publication in a peer reviewed scientific journal. The Ministry of Defence has assisted the research team by providing relevant personal and service data and information held about deaths.
In addition, because the Ministry of Defence is routinely informed only about deaths that occur in service, special arrangements have been made with the Office of National Statistics to gather comprehensive information about the deaths of Gulf veterans and a randomly selected control group who were in service on 1 January 1991 but did not deploy to the Gulf. This information is shared with the research team at Manchester University.