Wounded service personnel welcomed a Government move to guarantee that leg amputees will get the most up-to-date prosthetic limbs.

Whitehall today announces a funding boost of £6.5 million to ensure all members of the Armed Forces, past and present, who have been injured in Iraq or Afghanistan will be able to have state-of-the-art micro-processor limbs, known as bionic legs.

Paralympic rower Captain Nick Beighton, who competed in London 2012, lost both his legs in a blast while on a foot patrol in Afghanistan in 2009.

The 31-year-old Royal Engineer said of the high-tech Genium leg: "it just gives us that freedom to do more things and have greater functionality and more independence."

The funding will help around 160 individuals.