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Armed Forces

My Lords, it is a great privilege to follow the noble and gallant Lord—a privilege made a little less daunting by the fact that I agreed with so much of what he said. Because of so much very properly expressed anxiety recently about the medical treatment that has, or has not, been given to our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, it is right to say a few supportive words at the beginning about the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Selly Oak, which I had the privilege of visiting very recently under the aegis of the House of Lords defence group with the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, and my noble friend Lord Lyell. From the highly qualified and very determined commandant, Air Commodore Batchelor, downwards, we found nothing but the most dedicated determination to secure the very best treatment and nursing attention to the patients in their charge. In view of various fears, it is also worth saying that there was absolutely no indication that the military are treated in some way as second-class citizens. It is true that there are difficulties. The military part of the ward needs to be relocated to a place that is less exposed to the comings and goings inherent in the business of a big ward. That will be rectified. There have also been great success stories. We were told of one patient whose hand had been destroyed. The hand was completely reconstructed and restored using material taken from his ribs. I am quite convinced that this was made possible only because of the availability of some of the very best consultant expertise and equipment at that location. Lastly, it is worth mentioning the new provision at Selly Oak of some quite outstanding accommodation and facilities for visiting families, who can stay there, for many weeks in some instances, if necessary. I am very glad that the Defence Select Committee in the other place has just decided to investigate allegations of some shocking inadequacies in the treatmentof casualties, whenever and wherever they have occurred. However, it is only fair—and, I hope, a little reassuring—to record the very positive impressions that I formed on our recent visit to Selly Oak. When the subject of this debate covers so broad a canvas, I shall focus on a single theme, which is all one can do, and then try in the short time available to pick out some illustrative details. Many noble Lords have chosen as a theme today our shortcomings as a nation, to which we must confess, under the covenant between our nation and the servicemen whom we ask to fight on our behalf. The word ““covenant”” has been in frequent currency for some time; notably, in the debate today. Put briefly, our duty to our service people is both to employ them and to look after them fairly. That means, among other things, not exposing them, by reason of financial economy, to greater risks than are inherent in the jobs that we ask them to do. It means making their welfare a priority, especially in a theatre where the strain on morale is made greater by a harsh climate and where our bases are static and attract frequent attack from enemies too numerousto eliminate and hard to identify. It means looking after their families generously, especially in their accommodation. It also means not asking our service people to do too much. Overstretch is rightly the word of the moment. The noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, said that it was all right to be stretched; that was not the same thing as being overstretched. However, overstretch vividly suggests what happens to elastic when too much is required of it. For people who are professional life-riskers to find themselves subjected to it is deeply distressing to them, as well as unfair. It causes them to feel let down by those in whom they are entitled to put their trust. Yet, as we have been reminded, the recently retired head of the Army felt the need in a Dimbleby lecture to refer reproachfully to our national covenant and to warn us of the danger of breaking it. His successor, who is still in post, has spoken similarly. I do not deny that we experienced overstretch in Northern Ireland from time to time, but that does not make it any less serious. In November 2006, the National Audit Office found that 14.5 per cent of soldiers are being sent on missions more frequently than recommended in Army guidelines. That can legitimately be described as overstretch. The NAO also found that manning levels have not been adjusted to reflect current levels of activity faced by the Armed Forces. We have already been reminded that General Sir Mike Jackson recently said that a proportion of the accommodation for families was, frankly, shaming. I warmly join in congratulating the Minister, who is held in such high regard. Let me in the form of questions to him establish some illustrative detail. I have tried to give him some notice, albeit brief, of the thrust of most of them. Are not the Snatch Land Rovers in use in Basra far too old for reliable service and therefore liable frequently to break down when out of camp, when they and their occupants become immediate and static potential targets in exposed positions? Are not the better armoured, new 432 Mk2 Bulldog vehicles, which were intended to replace them for patrol purposes, afflicted by a chronic shortage of spares? Are these not always needed in the case of any newly developed vehicle, especially one that has been urgently procured? Does this not greatly prolong the period when Bulldogs are unfit for service and off the road, so that the insufficiently armoured Snatch Land Rovers must be used in their place, with the greatly enhanced risks that that entails? Is the Minister satisfied that roofs and other vulnerable areas at the static base at Basra Palace, a camp for some 600 troops, are now satisfactorily hardened against the risk of rocket and mortar attack? If he is, when was that state of protection achieved, and how long after such attacks became an established threat? Less seriously, but still importantly, on the welfare front, does mail addressed to forces in Basra city arrive only intermittently, with often no deliveries at all for a week, and are newspapers delivered from the UK typically a fortnight out of date? I understand this to be so. I hope we can have answers, and explanations, to at least some of these questions, because they bear directly on the troops’ perception of whether they are supported as they should be. No one can sensibly contend that Treasury tightfistedness towards the military is only a recent phenomenon; nor can anyone contend that the Government cannot point to some increase in defence spending in real terms, although, as the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Bramall, has pointed out, their spending is down as a proportion of our GDP. However, the dual campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing between them, I believe, some £100 million per month, and the Chief of the Defence Staff has recently told MPs that, "““there is not much left in the locker””," as we have heard several times today. If that locker is not replenished urgently and ungrudgingly, and our support performance improved, I predict that the retention figures for our service people will get worse and the dominant cause will be fairly described as breach of covenant.