Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and may I also thank the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government for her statement on Remembrance Day and supporting our armed forces, wherever they may be? Of course, in remembering the sacrifice of those lost, as the Deputy Minister has already mentioned, we also remember the suffering of those who have survived, and we all, of course, think of our own family members who have been involved in conflict. But, as I am so much older than many people who have spoken already, my grandfather fought in the battle of the Somme in the first world war, and, incredibly, he survived—or I wouldn’t be here, of course—but survived facing great suffering until his untimely death, when I was a very young boy. So, of course, we remember the sacrifice of those lost, but we also remember the suffering of those who survived—suffering that goes on to this very day.

And, of course, you mentioned in your statement the health impacts, and the mental health impacts specifically, and looked at the broad range of work happening with various organisations. But, of course, veterans and members of our armed forces have seen appalling things and it’s very difficult to cope with that and they need ongoing support. We need a substantial improvement in our mental health care across the board, because, as doctors and nurses working in the health service, we’re facing an increasing wave of mental health challenges, and, with veterans being at a high risk of being among those thousands of people who are suffering, they’re not all diagnosed as of yet, of course.

The health committee in this Senedd produced a report last year on suicide, and, of course, one of the high-risk groups for suicide are veterans. And I see what’s happening in terms of all of these organisations, but, naturally, there are people who fall between the cracks between the various organisations, what everyone is doing and so on. Essentially, what we want to know is what is the Government going to do to ensure that there is ongoing consistent funding, particularly of those charitable organisations working in our communities that provide mental health support across the board, as well as those organisations that you’ve named here who provide support for veterans. There are other charitable organisations too that are doing laudable work and they would be doing more of that work if they were resourced to the proper extent. That is, more resources, and that resource provided on an ongoing basis and in the longer term—the kind of thing we’re always asking the Government to provide.

And the only other question I have is that when someone who is a veteran returns and comes into contact with our health service, then, on occasion, there is a gap in their medical records. It isn’t always possible to get hold of any sort of information about their medical history whilst they were serving in the armed forces, and when we see them as doctors and nurses out in the community, then there’s no information about any former illnesses that they may have suffered. So, repeated demands have been made, and there are changes happening, but, again, there are some examples when that information simply isn’t available to the health service, and that information relates to the time they spent in the armed forces, and that’s where the information remains. I would hope that there would be some means of transferring that information, that necessary information, about the state of our veterans' health to the proper authorities who look after them now. Thank you very much.