Proposed cessation of UK service personnel amputation statistics
Published 30 April 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/cessation-of-uk-service-personnel-amputation-statistics/proposed-cessation-of-uk-service-personnel-amputation-statistics
Summary
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes an Official Statistic on UK service personnel amputation statistics. We are seeking external users’ views on the cessation of this report.
Background
The amputations report provides statistical information on the number of UK service personnel who suffered an amputation for the latest five-year period. Information on the number of UK service personnel who suffered a traumatic or surgical amputation resulting from injuries sustained in Afghanistan and Iraq is provided from 7 October 2001 to 31 March 2023.
The amputation statistics were originally developed to report on the effect of operations in Afghanistan (Op HERRICK) and Iraq (Op TELIC), with regards to amputations sustained by service personnel.
These statistics were also produced to inform the NHS and charities of the potential caseload involved in caring for amputees discharging from the UK armed forces who are eligible to access the veteran’s prosthetics and rehabilitation programme.
Reasons for proposed change
Operation TELIC (Iraq) ended in May 2011 and operations in Afghanistan ended in August 2021. There were no amputations due to injuries sustained in Iraq or Afghanistan during 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The numbers of amputations sustained by UK service personnel over the past five years has decreased with 8 in 2021-22 and 6 in 2022-23.
Internal users have been consulted and are content with the proposal to cease these statistics. Analysis Health will continue to collect and process the data and produce internal management information where required and respond when asked to Freedom of Information requests and Parliamentary Questions. If circumstances change and the number of amputations begin to significantly increase this official statistic will be resumed.
Timings
The consultation will run for six weeks from 30 April 2024. This consultation complies with the Government’s Code of Practice on Consultations. All responses will be taken into consideration on how to proceed however, if there are no objections during the consultation period, the publication of this report will automatically cease.
Responding to the Consultation
We invite the feedback of our external data users and are keen to understand how you use this report. Please provide details of how the cessation of this official statistic will impact you.
How to respond
If you have any comments on the proposed cessation of this report, please email them to Analysis-Health-PQ-FOI@mod.gov.uk stating ‘UK service personnel amputations consultation’ in the subject line.
When sending your comments please include contact details (your name and either email address, postal address or telephone number) so that we can follow up if clarification is needed.
If you have trouble contacting the email address above please forward any comments to: Analysis-Publications@mod.gov.uk
Consultation Outcome
To support transparency in our decision-making process, a summary of the responses to this consultation will be made public. No names of individuals or organisations who respond to the consultation will be published.