§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many requests by service personnel for access to their medical records there have been since the Gulf War; and if he will make a statement; [78280]
(2) how many requests by service personnel for access to their medical records since the Gulf War have been granted; what reasons have been given for refusing service personnel access to their military medical records; and if he will make a statement. [78281]
§ Dr. MoonieI will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
§ Dr. IddonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the incidence of reduced blood levels of the paraoxenase enzyme in Gulf War veterans. [78606]
Mr. Ingram MPA non-Ministry of Defence funded study published in September 2000 showed that when compared to a control group of some selected civilians who were well, self-selected ill United Kingdom Gulf veterans had:(a) a lower concentration of paraoxonase and (b) its activity was less than 50 per cent. of that found in the control group. The level of paraoxonase found showed little variation among the Gulf veterans studied and no link to the severity of symptoms or to genetic composition was identified. The Ministry of Defence has since part-funded a study to confirm, or otherwise, the earlier findings which includes United Kingdom Gulf veterans, Bosnia veterans and non-deployed veterans. The study is complete and it is expected that the results will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
§ Dr. IddonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy brain scanning as applied to UK Gulf War veterans. [78605]
§ Mr. IngramMagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is a non-invasive radiological technique. It measures intracellular concentrations of specific abundant chemicals in small areas of the brain and is used to examine brain activity patterns and to identify very localised areas of damage within the brain.
MRS has not been used in Gulf veterans' illnesses research funded by the Ministry of Defence. Some patients who attended the Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment Programme have been referred to specialist neurologists who may have used this procedure. Gulf veterans also may have had MRS scans during investigations carried out during their health care under the National Health Service or Defence Medical Services.
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§ Dr. IddonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the rate of death of(a) UK Gulf War veterans and (b) other members of the public by motor vehicle accidents was in each year since 1992. [78604]
§ Dr. MoonieThe mortality rates per 10,000 personnel to Gulf veterans due to motor vehicle accidents during the ten-year period 1992–2001 are given below. For comparison purposes the data for a similar sized cohort randomly sampled from United Kingdom armed forces personnel in Service on 1 January 1991 who were not deployed to the Gulf, stratified according to age, gender, Service, Officer status, regular/reservist status and a proxy marker for fitness are also given. Data from the Office for National Statistics for the general population of England and Wales with the same age and gender profile, taking into account the ageing of the Gulf cohort, is also provided.
Year Gulf Era England and Wales 1992 3.4 1.9 1.7 1993 2.1 1.1 1.3 1994 1.5 1.9 1.2 1995 2.4 0.6 1.1 1996 3.2 1.5 1.1 1997 1.3 2.2 1.1 1998 1.5 1.7 1.0 1999 1.5 1.5 1.0 2000 0.9 1.3 1.0 2001 1.3 0.4 0.9 Ten-year mean 1.9 1.4 1.2 A number of possible explanations have been put forward to explain the excess mortality rate above for Gulf veterans. These include that the veterans may have had some sort of neurological impairment caused by an exposure in the Gulf, that their perception of risk may have been altered by the experience of conflict or that this may have been a disguised form of suicide. We are discussing with the scientific community how best to conduct an analysis of the factors underlying the figures.
§ Dr. IddonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many members of the armed forces have retired from their employment on medical grounds in each year since their service in the Gulf war; and what the average annual rate of medical retirements has been in the last 10 years. [79530]
§ Dr. MoonieI will write to my hon. Friend and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.