I'll just say I'm Dave Rutter, sir. I head the armed forces and veterans' health team here in the Department of Health. I lead a very small team here, but we work very closely with NHS England with regard to delivering the programs and services that we provide.
It's important to note that this is England and not the U.K. Health is devolved within the U.K., so the Scots, Irish, and Welsh would have their own NHS health provision. I apologize if you're already aware of that, but I thought I'd better make it clear that when I speak of the programs that we run, they're predominantly for veterans' families and armed forces in England. Bearing that in mind, of course, with veterans of the military we work obviously with MOD—the Ministry of Defence—which has a U.K.-wide footprint and beyond. Veterans, when they leave the armed forces, will go back to their homes anywhere within the U.K. So we have to work very closely with our colleagues in the devolved administrations and we do so.
Just by way of context, and again apologies in advance if you are familiar with this, the Ministry of Defence here in the U.K. have health responsibility for the primary health care of those servicing, including dentistry, across the U.K. They do in some instances have primary health care responsibility for some families that are registered with their GPs. This tends to be in the very large bases or where they're in outlying areas. For veterans within NHS England, within U.K. as well more generally, the health care is the responsibility of the NHS administration. So within NHS England, we have responsibility for around about 4.5 million veterans, and our program is also designed to help their families as well where appropriate.
My responsibility here within the Department of Health is to take forward the government policies determined by our ministers, working very closely with NHS England, which was just set up quite recently, the first of April this year, with a responsibility for delivering armed forces health. But we also work very closely with service charities as well. You may be familiar with Help for Heroes, Royal British Legion, and others. We have a program designed to just go beyond the statutory services, if I can put it that way.
There are three key areas of work for us, which I'm very happy to answer questions around. One is around the continuity of health care for those who have been seriously injured or wounded during their time in the armed forces. The second key area is the mental health care of veterans, and the third area is the physical care of veterans, particularly those who have lost a limb as a result of their service.
I should say at the outset, although l know a lot about those programs and the wider areas of veterans and family health care, I'm not an expert in relation to the detailed compensation payments, etc., but certainly familiar with the way in which they are applied across the board within the NHS. I mentioned that we work closely with service charities. This is key in delivery. We have a small budget to deliver against these programs. I'm happy to go into that as well on request.
Actually, I think that probably concludes my opening remarks. I'm very happy to start taking questions from you.