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Armed Forces

My Lords, I begin by agreeing with the opening sentence of the noble Lord, Lord King, in the tribute that he paid to all those soldiers who have laid down their lives in the service of their country. However, I began to disagree with him when he said that the large number of speakers in the debate reflected concern about the state of our Armed Forces. I emphasise that I am not speaking from such a concern. I speak as someone who wants to express gratitude and admiration for necessary, imperative work that is well done and professionally undertaken within a budget that can be sustained. The noble Lord, Lord King, seemed to be saying—I do not want to be too polemical in today's debate, as this is not the occasion—that we need either more resources or to do less. I did not hear any advice to the Government about the things that we ought not to do. Therefore, the implication is that we need more resources. In that respect, I found the speech rather long on rhetoric and short on specific promise. It serves us well to reflect on some of the more mundane things that this Government are doing, day in day out, week in week out, to improve the situation for our Armed Forces. There is always significant comment on the state of housing and accommodation. That state of degradation in the estate did not start in 1997; it has come about after decades of neglect. Following those decades of neglect, the Government are pouring large sums of money into improving the estate. As I understand it, in 2005-06 the Ministry of Defence spent £700 million on housing and other living accommodation and upgraded over 1,700 service family homes, way above the target of 600 that it had set for that year. There is good pragmatic evidence of very significant improvements. The Ministry of Defence, as I found out following my inquiries, is proposingto spend more than £5 billion over the next decadeon further improvements to housing and living accommodation with plans for a further 35,000 improved bed spaces. That is a very real contribution to improving morale in our Armed Forces and, through that, improving retention. Equally, on medical support, one could be forgiven at times for believing that all the problems began in 1997, but for many years it had to be acknowledged that the Royal Hospital Haslar had nothing like the range of medical facilities necessary and certainly could not match the expertise of a major trust hospital such as that at Selly Oak in Birmingham. The decisions made by the previous Administration on closing military hospitals had to be made, but I believe that the alternative provision that is being made is fit for purpose. On manning levels, of course the Armed Forces are working hard and of course they are stretched, but being stretched does not necessarily mean being overstretched. A major problem in manning levels—perhaps I might ask my noble friend to comment on it when he replies to the debate—is that something like one in eight of our service personnel is considered medically unfit for the task to which he or she is posted. Those are not the kind of demands that we are complaining about as regards medical services; the reasons tend to be boring ones of fitness, including dental unfitness. If we really want to do something about improving the capacity of our staff and improving the manning levels, getting rid of many of those one in eight unfit-for-purpose personnel would be a major contribution. Looking at manning levels and resources, in an increasingly global world where much of our responsibility is channelled through bodies such as the European Union and NATO, we are entitled, with our contribution to global security, to ask some of our allies whether they are performing to the level that they ought. An important part of our contribution to the debate is not just to shoulder every obligation but, in a multilateral world, to use our political influence to put pressure on some of our allies to put their money where their mouth is. They are quick enough to run forward to participate in something like the European Defence Agency, where there might be a contract at the endof it, but they should pay admission to the clubthat they have joined by accepting their financial responsibility. The same could be said about operational equipment. Of course, the Army could always use more. As I see it, however, the Armed Forces have had equipment valued at more than £10 billion delivered to them in the past three years. I am sure that my noble friend Lady Dean will deal at some length with the military pay settlement this year, which has been exemplary and of which we can be proud. My final point is that, in Afghanistan, where we are putting in enormous military effort, we must also start looking at some of the other problems. I hope that defence and foreign affairs Ministers are looking seriously at the advice of the Senlis Council on the drug problem in Afghanistan and the desirability of procuring those drugs to meet the shortage of opiates in the European Union. That would guarantee farmers a proper income and thereby create a reasonable basis on which to get some peaceful solutions in that troubled country. The Government are doing a good job in difficult circumstances. I participate today to express not my concern, but my praise.