To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people (a) requested and (b) were granted a discharge from the Royal Navy on grounds of ill health in the last five years. (304193)

During the period November 2004 to November 2009 the Naval Service Medical Board of Survey and Naval Service Medical Employability Board considered the cases of 835 Royal Navy personnel who expressed a desire to be invalided from the service. Of this number 766 were discharged on medical grounds.