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Armed Forces

rose to move, That this House takes note of matters relating to Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and the service personnel Command Paper (Cm 7424). The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this debate is very timely and will be welcomed by Members on all sides of the House. Recently, we have been paying tribute, as we always do at this time of year, to those who have been killed or injured in action. This year, our time of remembrance was especially poignant as we marked the 90th anniversary of the Armistice and remembered the sacrifices made in conflicts from 1914 to the present day. It is not an exaggeration to say that the freedoms that we enjoy were bought at a very high price. It is right that as a nation we reflect on what our predecessors achieved for our sake. It is also important to reflect on the sacrifices that the brave men and women of our Armed Forces continue to make in order to defend our vital national interests. Some have paid the ultimate price, even very recently. We owe them all a huge debt of gratitude and offer our deepest condolences to their families. There can be no doubt that the British Armed Forces are working extremely hard. Ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan mean that they are operating at a high tempo. On a daily basis they demonstrate their courage, dedication and professionalism. They are stretched but, as the chiefs have said, the situation is manageable. In such times, the nation and the Government have a duty to offer more than just warm words. The demands that we impose on our Armed Forces are unique and we must ensure that they receive the support and recognition that they deserve. The national recognition study, which the Government commissioned and which reported earlier this year, highlighted ways in which the country could do more to show its appreciation. I am glad that it has caught the imagination of the public. Since its publication, we have seen the nation doing more to celebrate and honour our Armed Forces. Only last week, large crowds lined the streets of Colchester to welcome back 16 Air Assault Brigade. That is not a unique occurrence, but it is one that I hope will continue. It is an appropriate form of recognition, which I would like to see in more towns and cities around the country. While recognition is important, we must ensure that our service men and women, their families and those who have left the services get the support that they need and merit. That is why this Government launched the service personnel Command Paper in July this year. This set out for the first time ever the nation’s commitment to the Armed Forces constituency, which numbers around 10 million people. Cross-government, some 40 initiatives are being taken forward and are starting to deliver. For example, we expect the first payments doubling the compensation lump sum to be made before the end of this year and we have already extended eligibility for the affordable housing programme in England for a further 12 months post-discharge. These and other initiatives will ensure that those who serve their country are not disadvantaged by virtue of what they do or the circumstances of their work and that, where necessary, they are given special treatment. This is not all jam tomorrow. We have already done much across the board to improve the lot of our service personnel. Pay has been going up above inflation for the past two years. In February, we accepted the Armed Forces Pay Review Body’s recommendation of a 2.6 per cent pay rise for all service men and women—among the best in the public sector. This award builds on last year’s increase of 3.3 per cent—also the highest in the public sector. The 2007 award included a 9.4 per cent pay increase for some 13,000 of the most junior trained service personnel. It should be remembered that this is just basic pay; it does not include the free medical care, subsidised accommodation, food and a range of allowances on top of the basic salary. We have also introduced a wide-ranging operational welfare package. It includes more free calls for those on the front line so that they can stay in touch with people at home, free internet access, free post and council tax rebates, to name just a few. We recognise that accommodation is a key concern for personnel. Decades of underinvestment have left some service accommodation in poor condition, but that is something that we are putting right. In the next 10 years, we will be spending £8.4 billion in that area alone. Over the past seven years, the MoD has upgraded around 13,000 family homes to the top standard. I am pleased to say that by the end of this year there will no longer be any service families living in accommodation at the lowest tier of standards. We are also improving single living accommodation. Some 30,000 new or improved bed spaces have already been delivered. A further investment of £1.7 billion will be made in the next decade. Recently opened improvements at Catterick demonstrate the level of accommodation that we are putting in place. In Catterick—the Army’s largest garrison—1,800 of the soldiers from 4 Mechanised Brigade now have their own en suite rooms. Since 2002, some 2,800 new bedrooms have been completed as part of the £330 million programme to develop the super-garrison. The MoD is also building a physiotherapy centre, dining facilities, a sport and leisure centre and swimming pool, as well as redeveloping Catterick town centre under a major private finance initiative contract. I will take this opportunity to give noble Lords an update on Wellington Barracks, an issue that has been raised with me on the Floor of the House. I have acknowledged that the barracks are in need of improvement, but plans are being developed to do everything possible to bring such improvements about. Work is already in hand to improve the standard of the accommodation, with showers being refurbished, junior ranks’ communal areas being redecorated and site-wide heating repairs and upgrades. Additionally, a band rehearsal block is being built to replace facilities that were lost with the disposal of Chelsea Barracks. In total, it is anticipated that over £10 million will be spent on making improvements at Wellington Barracks over the next two years. However, we do not only focus on the accommodation that the MoD provides. We are also improving access to the property ladder for service personnel and those leaving the forces. Next year, we expect to launch a £20 million pilot scheme to promote home ownership. These are some of the things that we are doing in that area. Those who put themselves in harm’s way on our behalf must be assured that if they need medical attention it is of the best quality possible, both on operations and here in the UK. In Afghanistan, our forces have access to world-standard care provided at Camp Bastion—some colleagues will have seen that facility. There is a deployed hospital with all the associated support elements, including emergency medicine, primary surgery, an intensive care unit, medium and low-dependency nursing care beds and diagnostic support, including a CT scanner. The skills that medical professionals pick up in that field hospital are proving extremely beneficial; medical staff return to work in the UK with valuable experience. As well as that centre, additional facilities are deployed at local and unit levels to provide front-line medical support as well as an airborne evacuation in-theatre capability. Here in the UK, the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is now recognised as one of the best in the world for military medical attention. The military ward within the Birmingham New Hospital will ensure that service casualties continue to receive the same excellent level of care but in the greater privacy of single-bedded and four-bedded rooms, which all patients in that hospital will enjoy. The inspirational recoveries made by our injured personnel show the incredible spirit and determination of those individuals and what can be achieved with the right support. That is why we are now investing a further £24 million to maintain and enhance the first-class facilities that we have at Headley Court and why we are also working to improve regional and primary care rehabilitation facilities across the UK. However, it is obvious that our most urgent responsibility is to those on the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is why we are spending billions of pounds on new and improved equipment, both for the short and the long terms. Of course, money alone does not give the full picture, but in the past three years we have delivered more than £10 billion-worth of equipment to the Armed Forces, £4.5 billion of it in the past financial year. I think that these figures demonstrate how seriously we take equipping those on the front line. As a result, our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are now better equipped than ever before, both for their own protection and for carrying out their missions. Commanders on the ground have told me first-hand that they have never had so much good-quality kit. However, if you asked any commander if he would like more, he would probably say yes, just as any Minister would always want more for their department. None the less, that does not mean that commanders are short of what they need to achieve their objectives. When things go wrong—as they will in an operational situations—questions are asked. Obviously, the Snatch Land Rover has come under a lot of scrutiny, so I want to say a few words about this vehicle. The nub of the issue is that commanders need a wide variety of vehicles. Sometimes, for certain tasks, a light, manoeuvrable and/or low-profile vehicle may be the most suitable. What is most important is that commanders on the ground have access to a range of vehicles. It is their prerogative, not ours, to choose the most appropriate vehicle for any given task; we cannot second-guess what they should be doing. We have done a great deal to ensure that commanders have a variety of vehicles at their disposal—vehicles that provide varying degrees of protection, mobility and firepower. Although we have invested heavily in personal protection vehicles, there will still be situations when commanders use Snatch as part of their mixed force. The Chief of the General Staff said recently: "““There has always been and there remains a requirement for a small, agile vehicle to get to some of the places both in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the larger and protected vehicles, like Warrior, Bulldog and Mastiff, can’t get to … If there was a better vehicle, a smaller vehicle, out there that we could get our hands on quickly, or could have got our hands on quickly, we would do so or would have done so””." That is a very clear statement of the need for that vehicle in some circumstances. We are spending more than £30 million to upgrade all our Snatch vehicles on operations to the Snatch Vixen, which provides the same level of manoeuvrability with increased protection. These modifications, developed in response to operational pressures, will give the Snatch Vixen the highest levels of protection for its size and weight class compared with other vehicles out there on the market. However, we realise that the new generation of heavily armoured vehicles is also proving very useful and, indeed, vital. Therefore, last month we announced an extra 700 vehicles to further improve the safety of our people in theatre. Although we are investing billions of pounds in equipment for both the short and the long terms, there are those who still argue that we are not providing the right kit. Sadly, there have been casualties and each death is a huge loss. Obviously, it is right that independent authorities look into every death in an endeavour to avoid such events in the future. If bad practice or policy is apparent, we will change it. I hope that the investment that I have mentioned, and the reports from commanders that I have quoted from, put these issues in proper context. I am not suggesting—and nobody in the Ministry of Defence would suggest—that there is no more work to be done. We always want to improve our kit, our vehicles and the overall service that we provide. We are, at the moment, in the process of finding more helicopters from our allies and getting them to the front line as quickly as possible. The UK-French helicopter initiative, launched in May, has already brought several countries to the table to secure funds and to increase our helicopter capability. So far, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Norway are all helping in this respect and the fund currently stands at €20 million. In response to the initiative, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Ukraine have offered helicopters for Afghanistan, provided that they can secure funding for essential refurbishment, the equipment that is needed and the training that would allow those helicopters to be deployed. I hope that noble Lords will accept that the Ministry of Defence is committed to providing the best possible support for the Armed Forces, whether at home or on operations overseas. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the work that they do on a daily basis, because that work is to maintain our security. Our men and women on current military operations are showing exactly the same kind of steel and resolve that their forebears had, so it is right that, this month, when we honour the memory of those who protected us in the past, we should also honour and acknowledge those who protect us today. Part of what we are doing is committing ourselves to ensuring that service personnel, their families and veterans get the recognition and support that they deserve. The recognition study and the Command Paper have been significant steps forward in clarifying that relationship and in enhancing the entitlement of those in the Armed Forces. I therefore believe that real progress is being made and hope that we can continue to improve the lot of those to whom we owe so much. I beg to move. Moved, That this House takes note of matters relating to Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and the service personnel Command Paper (Cm 7424).—(Baroness Taylor of Bolton.)