An interesting one. To expand further on that, who would carry out the debrief for members of staff who are also members of the Territorial Army, etc., that may have served a tour in such areas? I appreciate that the MOD should carry out debriefing sessions; however, would the employee's HR dept., etc., be co-responsible?

The IOSH Guide to accident investigations 'Learning the Lessons' includes evidence-based advice (p8) about post-trauma debriefings, including not going over-the-top with these. I suggest the point of the recommended debriefings is basically to review how well the controls that were planned beforehand, including the pre-assignment training, actually worked. Were they sensible, practical and effective for reducing risks? Were any significant hazards missed, if so what additional controls would be sensible? Rather than needing to have experienced the conditions yourself, I suggest a competent de-briefer needs to be thoroughly familiar with the risk assessment, the planned controls and to be a good questioner, i.e. similar skills to an auditor or accident investigator. Similar experience may be helpful, but the whole point of the interview is to collect and use evidence from those who personally experienced the conditions.