MoD attacked over understaffed armed services
The MoD has come under fire over its understaffed specialisms
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Friday, 03, Nov 2006 07:57
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been attacked after a report published today revealed the existence of 88 'pinch points' where Britain's armed services are chronically understaffed.
The National Audit Office (NAO), releasing its analysis of recruitment and retention to the nation's armed services, says that the MoD is meeting 98 per cent of its recruitment targets.
However it also reveals that there are 88 "pinch points" in specific areas, including doctors, nurses, engineers and bomb disposal experts, where there are insufficient personnel available at present.
"The MoD is working hard to tackle the issues in recruitment and retention to ensure there are sufficient levels of personnel in the armed forces. But, given current levels of operational deployment, workloads on service men and women in some areas are heavy," Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said.
In order to solve staffing issues the MoD must focus more on retention than recruitment, the NAO report recommends, because it says that too many serving personnel are leaving because of the impact the military has on their family life. Forty-nine per cent of departing personnel left because of this reason, the report found.
Other reasons cited by over a quarter of leaving personnel included being overworked on too many deployments, complaints about the quality of the equipment provided and a general feeling of not being valued.
"The consequences of prolonged overstretch on our armed forces could be disastrous," Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Nick Harvey warned.
"Pinch points in key services are of grave concern. It is essential that our armed forces have all the material, staff and resources they need."
Conservative shadow defence secretary Liam Fox described the report as "damning" and complained that the government was to blame for "unacceptable pressures" being placed on service personnel and their families.
"The government cannot continue like this - if the prime minister is going to continue making commitments then the chancellor must be willing to foot the bill," Mr Fox said.
But the MoD rejected these criticisms, saying it was acting to resolve the problems highlighted in the NAO report.
"We do understand the impact that frequent operational tours have on serving personnel, their friends and families and we have recently announced improvements in pay and benefits for those who are deployed on operations," commented the under-secretary of state for defence, Derek Twigg.
"Moreover we will continue to identify measures to address the effects of this period of high operational tempo and are restructuring our forces to spread the load more evenly.
"Military service is very different to civilian life and brings with it unique challenges and demands particular commitment from personnel and their dependents," Mr Twigg added.