A busy day. First up was a virtual meeting with the COVID Recovery Group, ably chaired by Mark Harper MP. The meeting was in confidence, but it was an interesting and informative session. A Teams meeting with my parliamentary staff followed, where we had a good catch-up on a broad range of issues. At 1400, I joined a private meeting of our Defence Select Committee, before moving across to the public element of our weekly get-together. Today we took evidence from two panels. The first consisted of Mandy Bostwick, a specialist trauma psychotherapist, and Dr Gary Green, Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology, at the University of York. The second panel had Sue Freeth, chief executive of Combat Stress, Sarah Jones, Head of Psychological Wellbeing, Help for Heroes, and Meagan Levin, Policy Officer, Royal British Legion. The session sought an update on mental health treatment for veterans and members of the Armed Forces, and to examine whether the Ministry of Defence and other Government Departments have improved their performance since the publication of the Committee’s reports on Mental Health, and the Armed Forces and have met the additional challenges of the pandemic, and, in particular, to look at the provision of diagnosis of and treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury. It was an interesting and long session. You can read it on Hansard. I was particularly struck by Mandy Bostwick, who spoke well and did not mince her words. At 1630, I attended another virtual meeting with a small group of colleagues, which lasted over an hour. We had much to discuss, all in private. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti Patel was urging people to play their part by following Covid. She said she'd back the police to enforce laws. At the No 10 briefing, Ms Patel added that a minority were "putting the health of the nation at risk" by flouting rules. Police are "moving more quickly to issuing fines", she said, with nearly 45,000 fixed penalty notices issued across the UK. Regrettably, another 1,243 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid. And, in the retail sector, Tesco, Asda and Waitrose have become the latest supermarkets to say they will deny entry to shoppers who do not wear face masks unless they are medically exempt. It follows a similar move by Morrisons, while Sainsbury's said it would challenge those who flout the rules. Retailers have been criticised for not doing enough to stop people breaking Covid rules as infections spread. Finally, the company at the centre of an outcry over the size of food parcels going to the poorest pupils while schools are in lockdown in England apologised. Marcus Rashford sought a meeting with the firm, Chartwells, after seeing a photo of the measly parcel on Twitter. The post, by someone calling herself Roadside Mum, was picked up by news outlets, which then quizzed Downing Street officials about it. Some hours later the firm agreed the parcel had fallen short on quantity.

Witnesses
Panel 1
● Mandy Bostwick, Specialist trauma psychotherapist
● Dr Gary Green, Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology, University of York
Panel 2
● Sue Freeth, Chief Executive, Combat Stress
● Sarah Jones, Head of Psychological Wellbeing, Help for Heroes
● Meagan Levin, Policy Officer (Welfare and Employment), Royal British Legion

To seek an update on mental health treatment for veterans and members of the Armed Forces, and to examine whether the Ministry of Defence and other Government Departments have improved their performance since the publication of the Committee’s reports on Mental Health and the Armed Forces and have met the additional challenges of the pandemic, and, in particular, to look at the provision of diagnosis of and treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury.