News Search Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind Site search Web search Story archive		03-02-2006 Scotsman Rules on casualties contradict MoD's claims By Gethin Chamberlain NEW evidence has revealed that the Ministry of Defence gave out casualty figures for British forces in Iraq which fall short of the true figure. Last week John Reid, the Defence Secretary, claimed that 230 British soldiers had been wounded in Iraq. On Monday, The Scotsman revealed that the real figure was much higher. And yesterday, in a written Commons answer, Mr Reid admitted that the published figure related only to one of the three UK field hospitals operational during the war in Iraq. He also admitted that the figure did not include wounded soldiers who were treated by unit medics and were not admitted to hospital. The Ministry of Defence said it will publish casualty figures for UK troops in Iraq on its website within the next few weeks. The MoD has repeatedly claimed that information on casualties was not collected or collated. But restricted MoD documents, seen by The Scotsman, show that the armed forces routinely record details of all soldiers wounded in action and should pass them to ministers. Earlier this week the MoD conceded there were probably hundreds more casualties but it did not have records available of their injuries. Mr Reid said that categorising the injured, wounded and sick was simply not a priority for forces in Iraq. But The Scotsman has obtained access to the MoD's own, previously unpublished, rules on the recording of casualties which make it quite clear that the information does exist. JSP751 (Joint Casualty Procedures) states: "The Ministry of Defence places the utmost importance on the way the services deal with their casualties. "Casualty reporting must be undertaken as quickly and sensitively as possible and it takes precedence over all but the most urgent operational and security matters. However, the accuracy of any information provided is also of the utmost importance. "The casualty reporting ... process is co-ordinated by the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre and all information must be routed through it. "However, the role the single services play in the process is equally important. Each service remains responsible for its own people... Indeed the single services will be expected to brief ministers on all matters to do with their own casualties."
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