To ask Her Majesty's Government what marriage counselling and support is available to (a) Armed Forces personnel and their families, and (b) Armed Forces personnel serving in theatre. [HL5781]

Support for non-deployed Armed Forces personnel and families is available through comprehensive individual service welfare resources, which offer varying degrees of relationship counselling and direct people to professional advice services such as Relate or local counselling services overseas.

Provision of appropriate pastoral care in theatre is a fundamental command responsibility and commanders take their duties in this regard seriously. While there is no bespoke marriage counselling service in operational theatres, those providing support and advice from the chain of command will be able to signpost individuals in need of particular assistance to where that assistance may be found. There are currently 13 chaplains deployed to Afghanistan as well as a number of mental health professionals, all of whom can provide advice as required. If a commander becomes aware that there is a specific marital issue the unit rear party can be advised in order to assist the family at home. In particularly serious cases, commanders have the discretion to grant compassionate leave to send a service person home in order to assist in resolving marital difficulties, but any such decision has to be balanced against operational imperatives.