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Armed Forces

My Lords, first, I thank the Minister for giving us the opportunity to discuss this particularly important subject today. Secondly, as noble Lords will see, I am a bit down the batting list. However, after the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, and the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, I shall be brief and restrict my remarks to what I have been able to see in this country as the secretary of the all-party House of Lords Defence Group. I am grateful to the Minister for all that she said about Wellington Barracks. In this folder, which I managed to dig out in the dark of Angus as I left at half-past six this morning, I have the kind note that she sent me after our visit, dated 20 October. She mentioned the figure of £10 million to be spent on Wellington Barracks. She made one or two other comments in the note, which I shall spare her this evening, but I am sure that she and the Ministry are looking into the repairs. We are grateful for what is being carried out at Wellington Barracks. I am sure that the battalion there—I think that it is the Grenadier Guards—will be very pleased indeed. I was delighted to hear what the Minister had to say about the Catterick Garrison and 4 Mechanised Brigade. She may know that my regiment and that of my noble and gallant father, the Scots Guards, will also be using Catterick as its home. It will be part of an armoured, mechanised battalion. I thank her for all the information that she gave on the improvements at Catterick, particularly as far as ongoing health is concerned—things like physiotherapy and conditioning for the young soldiers, not just the young recruits who are being trained there. The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, and my noble and learned friend Lord Mayhew may remember a visit that we paid to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham in March last year. My two colleagues and I were particularly impressed by the efforts being made at Selly Oak. We were also impressed by one or two small points, such as the refurbishment of accommodation for families who might wish to visit their sons or daughters, casualties at Selly Oak or in the Birmingham area, as well as single accommodation for young soldiers under treatment or consideration at Selly Oak. The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Bramall, and I, together with others from the House of Lords Defence Group, visited the University of Central England in Birmingham, which does enormous amounts of training for the military medics. We were grateful for what it is doing and for what the Minister said today about its work. In June this year, the House of Lords Defence Group was lucky to visit Headley Court. All your Lordships would want to pay particular tribute to everything that was being done there, above all to the unbelievable spirit and outlook of the young servicemen, as well as some of the older ones. In particular, the younger ones thought, in the words of the late Group Captain Douglas Bader, ““Think of what you can do tomorrow, not what happened yesterday””. They and everybody else at Headley Court are doing just that. As far as operations far and away are concerned, I have been able to study and read only what I find in the media or the newspapers. The noble Baroness referred to vehicle upgrading and to the Apache helicopter, about which I have recently been reading some mainly favourable reports. Will she and her department please take action and keep vigilant ““this day””, to cite two words used by the great Admiral Lord Nelson? Also, will she please keep up to date and check every item of kit and weaponry to be used overseas that comes across her desk in the department each and every day? Will she be kind enough to confirm two small items to me, on which she may have written to me before? The GR7 and GR9 Harriers were at 800 and 801 Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton. I think that they now roost or are based at RAF Cottesmore. I understand that they are carrying out particularly intensive operations in theatre. I hope that she can confirm that the training, the equipment and the support that they get are up to date. Will the noble Baroness also write to me and confirm that the budget will still be in place for the new version of the Joint Strike Fighter, which I think is called the F-35? The F-35A, the conventional version, is being well developed. The F-35B, which will be the successor to the Harrier vertical or short take-off and landing, is the first prototype that has flown and will soon be in the air, perhaps early next year. Can she confirm that to me? I understand that the F-35C, which will be the conventional carrier version, is still a year or two down the road. Will she write to me on that? I have a rather complicated query on an item of kit, but I will not disturb the noble Baroness about it this evening; I will let her department have my query on it. I conclude by sending the thoughts of each and every one of us to the men and women who, as soldiers and young recruits—rather like my noble friends Lord Astor, Lord Glenarthur and I were all those years ago—are learning and taking the very best training that you can get anywhere. It is they whom we shall be supporting in future debates. I will take the gentle luxury of giving the support of all of us to what I call my commando—45 Commando—which is based in Angus. We are particularly proud of Colonel Morris and each and every one of them. We hope that they will come back safe and sound, having done a wonderful tour of duty. We send our support, our good wishes and our hopes to the personnel. I thank the noble Baroness for giving us the opportunity to discuss what is particularly important at this gap in the programme and for bringing it forward today.