Written questions by Minns.

What progress he has made on the rollout of Programme Cortisone.

Programme CORTISONE will provide the Defence Medical Services (DMS) with an up-to-date electronic healthcare information management system to administer the healthcare of the Defence population to maximise fitness for role. The delivery of Programme CORTISONE will ensure clinicians have the underpinning systems that enable them to focus upon providing the best possible patient care for service personnel to improve patient outcomes and to maximise personnel deployability. One of the programme’s key drivers is coherence across the breadth of the DMS information and to enable seamless interoperability and connectivity with the NHS structures of the home nations. This will enable the DMS to achieve their clinical outputs in a fully informed, data driven manner. Programme CORTISONE is currently delivering activity to ensure the stability of current medical information services (DMICP) in parallel with activity to introduce new capabilities. Work is underway to further the development of patient engagement services which are already demonstrating improvements to patient waiting times. The procurement process to deliver the new electronic healthcare information management system is ongoing with a plan to roll this capability over the next two years.

If he will list the (a) date and (b) place of every coroner's inquest that established heat as a cause of death for service personnel since 2013.

From 1 January 2013 to 13 October 2024, three UK Armed Forces personnel tragically died from heat related causes confirmed by a Coroner and listed on the death certificates. All three deaths occurred in July 2013. The inquest for all three deaths began on...

How many service personnel died within 24 hours of completing their annual fitness test in each year since 2013.

Since 2013, two Army personnel have sadly died whilst undertaking the combat fitness test element of the annual fitness test. No other personnel have died within 24 hours of completing their annual fitness test during this period.

How many annual fitness tests were cancelled due to the safe temperature being exceeded (a) one (b) two and (c) three hours before the start time in each year since 2013.

The Ministry of Defence does not hold any information of annual fitness tests being cancelled due to the safe temperature being exceeded because this information is not recorded.

If he will list every date on which the Health and Safety Executive issued his Department a notification of contravention since 2013.

Health and Safety Notices of Contravention (NOC) can be issued to any organisation within Defence at a local level and this information is not held centrally by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). However, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publishes detail...

With reference to his Department's response to the Coroner report on the death of Corporal Joshua Hoole, dated 27 January 2020, when the common tri-service suite of reporting and investigation forms was completed

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has overhauled safety policy beginning in 2020 to provide clear direction that all suspected or confirmed heat illness cases must be reported, and to improve the quality of reporting safety occurrences. The MOD is now moving ...

What improvements have been made to (a) how and (b) what data is reported for heat illness cases following the inquest into the death of Corporal Joshua Hoole in 2019.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has overhauled safety policy beginning in 2020 to provide clear direction that all suspected or confirmed heat illness cases must be reported, and to improve the quality of reporting safety occurrences. The MOD is now moving ...

How many and what proportion of service personnel failed their annual fitness test in each year since 2013.

The requested information is provided in the following tables: Royal Navy Year AwardedFailedFail rate20159824%20161,4395%20171,5045%20181,6826%20191,4505%20201,5237%20211,4127%20221,8888%20231,9609%20241,0835% Table Notes: Data prior to 2015 is incomplet...