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Territorial Army

Thank you for your chairmanship of this debate, Miss Begg. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) on securing this debate and leading it so ably. I pay tribute to the all-party reserve forces group under whose auspices this excellent report was published. I thank all those who serve in the Territorial Army and the other reserve organisations that ably serve our country. It is worth reminding the Chamber that my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury has served in the Territorial Army, as have my hon. Friends the Members for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) and for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray). My hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis) served in the Royal Naval Reserve, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison), who saw action in Operation Telic 2 in Iraq. The right hon. Member for Islwyn (Mr. Touhig) was a distinguished holder of the office currently held by the hon. Member for Halton (Derek Twigg). I also thank the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming) for his remarks. Having contributions from all parties is in keeping with the all-party nature of the report. My hon. Friend the Member for Kettering alluded to the fact that 1 April next year will be the 100th anniversary of the formation of the territorial force. I know that the Ministry of Defence will make a written statement on that very subject today. Many hon. Members have said that the Territorial Army plays two vital roles in the armed forces. The first is in operations, providing extra support to our Regular forces. We all know that TA personnel have played a key part in operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly in the past few years. The best information that we have is that more than 13,000 Territorial Army personnel have served in Iraq. I do not think the Ministry of Defence keeps all that data centrally, so it is difficult to dig it out, but those personnel have made a huge contribution. Several hon. Members have made the point that if we had not had the reserve service, we would have been in great difficulty in carrying out those operations. My hon. Friend the Member for Kettering drew attention to the quotation from Professor Richard Holmes in the foreword to the all-party group report. Professor Homes makes a point that I wish to echo about the important role that the Territorial Army has in maintaining the link between the armed forces and wider society. As time goes on, increasingly fewer people have a direct link either themselves or through their family members or friends with the armed forces, and it is imperative that we retain that link as widely as we can in society. If we continue to deploy our armed forces at the current tempo, it is important in part that the public understand what our service personnel do, the pressures that they are under and the challenges that they face when they finish their service. They must be properly supported. The Territorial Army plays a key role in that respect. My hon. Friend also mentioned the important role that the services’ cadet forces play. I have had the opportunity to visit some of them in my constituency, and I know what a valuable role they play. Notwithstanding the all-party nature of the report, it is worth pointing out that the Territorial Army is well below the strength that the Ministry of Defence would like. The TA is about 10,000 people below strength. I should be interested in the Minister’s response to that point. It would be helpful if he outlined the Ministry’s and the Government’s view of their ability to increase the size of the Territorial Army to the desired level. The Territorial Army’s use as a key part of operations also has an impact when we operate above our defence planning assumptions, as we have done for the past few years. If it continues, the Territorial Army will continue to play a key role in operations. Several Members mentioned the level of deployment and the impact on our serving personnel when they return from operations. The right hon. Member for Islwyn and my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East both referred to the medical care of reservists, whose challenges are greater than they are for our Regular forces, because the reservists return to their civilian life. They are neither with their unit nor with their military colleagues. The right hon. Member for Islwyn described in detail the mental health factor, and the Conservatives welcome the introduction of the reservist mental health programme, which the Minister outlined some time ago. However, more must be done, particularly for reservists. We must consider whether there can be more proactive and sensitive work to ensure that, as the right hon. Gentleman said, personnel do not feel abandoned when they return to society. We must ensure that they are aware of the services that are available, including those provided directly by the MOD, and indirectly by organisations such as Combat Stress, the Royal British Legion and its caseworkers, and SSAFA—Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association—Forces Help. A range of organisations take the lead on that issue. We have seen in the past week that many people who served in the Falklands campaign 25 years ago still have mental health issues arising from that service. We do not just need to think about the issue today. We need to think about all those people who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly given the new challenges that they have faced, such as the threat from suicide bombers, and the way in which that will impact on their mental health not just this year and next, but for decades to come. We must think about how to ensure that those services are properly resourced and accessible to them. Talking about the health care of regular and reservist service personnel, I was fortunate last week to visit Selly Oak hospital and the regular and reservist personnel there who have been wounded on operations. I was very impressed by the medical care that they receive. We had an open visit, we were able to talk to everybody there and the medical care was of high quality. As the Department is involved in the private finance initiative-rebuild of the new hospital, I urge on the Minister a point that I brought back from that visit. I know that some moves have been made in the redesign of the current ward, with its new nurses’ station, but the point was reinforced to us that a dedicated unit would be an absolutely key area. It would be valued not only by those who work at Selly Oak hospital, but by our regular and reservist armed forces. I know that negotiations are ongoing, but I shall reinforce the message. The medical care that they receive is very good, but a dedicated facility would improve it and reduce the problems that have been experienced. The right hon. Member for Islwyn referred to yesterday’s announcement about the expansion of the medical assessment programme. It would have been nice if the parliamentary written statement had been issued on the same day as the announcement was made to the press, but at least there is to be an announcement to the House today. We welcome that move, but I am not sure that it addresses the scale of the problem to which several hon. Members referred in the House. One of the report’s specific recommendations, which my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury mentioned, was about drivers’ hours and the way in which other European Union regulations impact on our reservists. The Department for Transport made a statement about it yesterday, and the MOD is dealing with it, but it highlights a lesson: throughout Government, regulations may be introduced that impact on reservists and people serving in the Territorial Army in particular, because of the dual nature of their work. They are civilian employees who serve in the armed forces. It is a lesson for the MOD. Rather than having to apply for a derogation after the event—after the problems have been raised—the MOD must ensure that its monitoring organisation, which considers legislation from throughout the Government for its impact on the armed forces, works more proactively. I know that the organisation exists. Instead of having to fix problems in retrospect, it would be better to catch them before they occur. The Government are dealing with the issue, but I ask them to do so as urgently as possible, because there have been practical problems. Several Members mentioned the thanks that we owe not only to people who serve in our reserve forces and the Territorial Army, but to the employers large and small who support them. Employers are very impressed by the skills that those who serve in the Territorial Army gain while deployed and in training. The MOD should also ensure that the skills that they gain in civilian employment are properly recognised when they undertake their military service. Having spoken to a number of people who have served on operations, I discovered that some of the skills that they used in operations and in theatre were gained in civilian employment. The strain on small companies in particular caused by the way in which we are actively deploying the Territorial Army and other reservists has been mentioned. We must recognise that however much companies want to support their employees who serve, it becomes difficult if they are deployed frequently. We must think about our support not only for the employer, but for the employee, and the way in which they are encouraged to manage their careers around their military service. Given the number of people employed in smaller companies, which is growing as a percentage of the work force, we must ensure that they can join the Territorial Army and our other territorial organisations, otherwise we will find it difficult to recruit them in future. My hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire made a point about the civil contingencies operation. When we had a similar debate last year, I asked the Government about the TA’s civil contingencies role in ““The Strategic Defence Review: A New Chapter””, which said:"““A reaction force of, on average, some 500 volunteer reserves would be established in each region…giving a total of some 6,000…nation-wide.””" My hon. Friend mentioned the fact that, with a significant number of our Territorial Army personnel deployed, it is not clear that they will be available in the event of a civil contingency. We have seen some illustrations of that, such as when a strike was threatened by the fire service. On that occasion, the Ministry of Defence made it clear that it would not be able to provide cover, as it simply did not have the resources, whether from the regulars or the reserves, because of our operational tempo. That issue needs to be thought about. If, God forbid, there was an event of such a scale, I am sure that members of the reserve forces would be prepared to serve regardless of their legal status. However, if they were needed in an event of lesser severity, we might have a significant problem in using the right number of personnel. Another issue that I want to raise with the Minister—I know he will be aware of it, since his office is copied in on such correspondence—concerns a copy of a memo from the office of the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, the right hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Mr. Ingram), who is Minister for the armed forces, that refers to some savings that the Government made during the defence programme 2007 by reducing Territorial Army funding by £2.5 million in 2007-08 and 2008-09. I note from the memo that the Minister for the armed forces has received a minute from the Land Forces Secretariat advising him of the significant impact of the cuts, particularly on officer recruitment and Operation Executive Stretch. That operation has offered companies and business people a valuable insight into all the volunteer reserve forces and given them a good example of the transferable skills that their employees would get out of serving in the armed forces. The Minister for the armed forces has noted the significance of that impact and instructed people in the Department to come back to Ministers with potential alternatives by 22 May. I therefore hope that the Minister can update the Chamber on the progress on those cuts and on what has been done to reverse them. The debate has highlighted many positive aspects of the Territorial Army and our reserve forces, and the key role that they play on our operational deployments. However, we can also see that they are under strength and that they face a number of challenges. The all-party group’s report contains 18 recommendations and I hope that the Minister will say a little about how the Government propose to respond to them. My hon. Friend the Member for Kettering referred to the recommendation on gap year commissions and the role of the officer training corps. I understand that gap year commissions are being done away with, which is a retrograde step, so perhaps the Minister can comment on that in light of the all-party group’s report. In conclusion, it is clear from the Territorial Army’s contribution to the Army that it is a key part of our armed forces. The all-party group’s report makes us all grateful for the work that everyone serving in the Territorial Army does for our country. We owe it to them to ensure that we look after the Territorial Army in a way that is in keeping with the service that they give to our Queen and country.