Cessation of Defence personnel NHS commissioning statistics
Published 30 April 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/cessation-of-defence-personnel-nhs-commissioning-statistics/cessation-of-defence-personnel-nhs-commissioning-statistics
Summary
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes an Official Statistic on the number of UK armed forces and civilian personnel with a Defence Medical Services registration. We are seeking external users’ views on the cessation of this report.
Background
This publication was developed to enable the MOD, the Department of Health (DH), NHS England (and devolved administrations), Public Health England, and local authorities to make informed decisions regarding the commissioning of clinical services by location, depending on the size and make-up of the populations requiring access to care. This was of particular importance during the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) which resulted in a reduction in the size of the Armed Forces, and the Army Basing Programme, which saw a number of troops relocated.
Reasons for proposed change
The Army Basing Programme ended in March 2021 and since then population changes have been small (less than 2% change in numbers of armed forces personnel between publications) and due to routine troop movements. The proportions of personnel by location have also remained the same over this period. We believe that there is now sufficient published information to allow for future estimates to be made of personnel by location. This is a resource intensive publication which generates a low level of interest, and therefore we are keen to seek feedback on whether this resource could be used elsewhere. 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.
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 ‘Defence personnel NHS commissioning statistics 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.