HL Deb 05 November 2003 vol 654 cc115-6WA
Lord Morris of Manchester

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will reconsider the Royal British Legion's call for a full public inquiry into the still medically unexplained illnesses of troops deployed in the 1990–91 Gulf War. [HL5148]

Lord Bach

The Government are not convinced that a public inquiry would help to answer the basic question of why some Gulf veterans are ill. We have not ruled out the possibility that we may look at this again if circumstances were to change, but in the present circumstances it is only through the programme of independent scientific and medical research initiated by the Government that we are ever likely to be able to establish the causes of Gulf veterans' illnesses.