Veterans Affairs committee  I can answer about the families. From the transition work we are going through at the moment, we are doing more for the families who are affected. I won't go through that again, because I don't want to waste your time. In terms of mental health, it's an area we wish to go into

Veterans Affairs committee  That is a difficult one. I haven't anything on that. We have that so very rarely. It's something we would have to look at further. We have a system whereby anyone in the armed forces can complain. We have a service complaints system but that can be used for anything, and I str

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. We can only go back to the over 80% at the six-month point when they transition out of the armed forces as being in full employment within the six-month period of leaving. It's over 80%. Of course, we are constantly developing the career transition partnership, though of co

Veterans Affairs committee  As I said, there is no veterans agency or department or anything here. Veterans are a part of society, so each government department has to do its best. When a veteran leaves the armed forces, as a member of society he will register with a general practitioner like anybody else.

Veterans Affairs committee  That is correct, yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a difficult one. What I would add is that it is all the experts you would expect to be involved, particularly initially at the decompression piece where the guys are straight out of operations, the idea being that it's a location away from the actual hostilities. This is t

Veterans Affairs committee  Perhaps I could come in with regard to this. The Veterans' Gateway is a single point of contact that people can go to, but it is not the only central point of contact. There are many other organizations. For example, there's the British army regimental system, and a lot of peopl

Veterans Affairs committee  One of the things that we've been sure to introduce is what is called a tri-service referral form, which means that anyone within the services who, by their commanding officer, is noted as “may have a potential issue upon discharge” can be referred to the veterans welfare service

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay, I will be brief. You are right; that is the correct detail. The study was, of course, done a number of years ago. We are attempting to do more work in transition with our personnel before they leave the services. There is a program that we are trying to put together, po

Veterans Affairs committee  I can probably take this question. We only heard half of your statement because you cut out on us, but I can state that, of all personnel who leave the armed forces, only around 16,000 a year, about 80% transition well. Of the others, 10% or maybe slightly higher than that are in

Veterans Affairs committee  No, that's a difficult one. For some of them, when we talk about transitioning, we're talking about being housed and in gainful employment up to 12 months after they have left, so it is really the housing and the employment status of the individuals that is the main issue. Some o

Veterans Affairs committee  In the past, we didn't track our veterans when they departed. Those who left at the end of the Second World War, and those who were in the national service did their statutory period of time, maybe a year or two, and they disappeared off the radar. Of the older veterans we have,

Veterans Affairs committee  Good afternoon. Apologies. It's taken us a while to come through. I am Group Captain Mark Heffron and I'm head of welfare policy.