Thank you for your correspondence dated 14^th July, in which you asked for the following information:

Since operations began in Afghanistan on 7^th October 2001 and up until the 15^th June 2009 there have been 91 Very Seriously Injured/wounded (VSI) and 119 Seriously Injured/wounded (SI) UK Military and civilian casualties reported in the initial Notification of casualties (NOTICAS) signal.

Information on specific injuries for Service personnel is not held centrally.  In order to answer this question DASA would need to review the individual medical records for the 210 Service personnel who have been recorded as VSI and SI and this would incur disproportionate cost.

DASA are however able to breakdown the VSI and SI casualties that were caused by `Hostile Action' and `Other Causes' as seen in Table 1. Information on further breakdowns of VSI and SI casualties cannot be released without disclosing individual identities.

The NOTICAS reports raised for casualties contain information on how seriously medical staff in theatre judge their condition to be. This information is used to inform what the next of kin are told. VSI and SI are the two most serious categories into which personnel can be classified:

Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) compile statistics on the number of operational casualties in the UK Armed Forces, the latest reports are available at the following website:

The casualty statistics include data from the NOTICAS signals:

The VSI and SI categories are defined by Joint Casualty and Compassionate Policy and Procedures. They are not strictly 'medical categories' but are designed to give an indication of the severity of the illness to inform what the individual's next of kin are told. In the figures for Operation HERRICK (Afghanistan) and Operation TELIC (Iraq) we have excluded those individuals categorised as VSI or SI whose condition was identified to be caused by illness.

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Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non Crown Copyright) information

In keeping with the spirit and effect of the Freedom of Information Act, all information is assumed to be releasable to the public unless exempt. The MOD therefore will be simultaneously posting the information you requested, together with any related information that will provide a key to its wider context, in our online FOI Disclosure Log at http://www.foi.mod.uk.

If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end.

If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.ico.gov.uk.