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Mr. Menzies Campbell (North-East Fife): The assurance that the Secretary of State has just given--that there will be no public ceremony of the kind suggested in the newspapers this morning--will be received with great enthusiasm and some satisfaction on both sides of the House. However, will he tell the House by how many the Army is below its permitted establishment? What is the number of vacancies in the Army today?
Mr. Hoon: I shall have to check on the precise figure as of today. We are making progress towards achieving full complement. If we were able to continue at the present rate of improvement, we anticipate that full complement in the Army would be achieved by 2005. We would hope to achieve full complement in the Navy and the Air Force rather more quickly than that. However, that would depend on ensuring that our retention figures improve and, as I said yesterday at Defence questions, on our continuing to make progress away from the previous net reduction in numbers and towards the improvements that we have seen in recent times.
As I have indicated, and as events in Northern Ireland have demonstrated, reducing commitments is not always easy. We have responsibilities around the world and we must discharge them. There are unforeseen contingencies and emergencies to which we must respond. Disruption is in the nature of service life. It is therefore important that our armed forces are well treated and properly rewarded. I am glad that the Select Committee recognises and values the significant steps that we have taken, such as improved access to NHS dentists, to improve the welfare of service families. I am pleased that the Committee also welcomes other practical and manifest changes that the Government have introduced.
We have delivered a package of improved allowances for people deployed on operations. That includes an additional bonus of £1,000 for all who have experienced more than 280 days paid separated service over the two years since December 1997, and a bonus of £2,000 for those who have experienced more than 365 paid days away.
Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold):
The Secretary of State has described how our commitment throughout the world is being reduced in a number of theatres, such as Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Gulf. Will he assure us that he will not use that as an excuse to reduce the number of our armed forces below the existing establishment levels forced on him by the budgetary cuts made by the Treasury?
Mr. Hoon:
I made it clear in an answer in Defence questions yesterday that we have maintained the levels set out in the strategic defence review and, as the hon. Gentleman will recall, that involves an increase of some 3,300 over the numbers in the armed forces that we inherited.
The bonuses will continue in future years; they will apply to all three services, and they will benefit several thousand of our hardest-working men and women. We have halved the qualifying period for longer separated service allowances from three years to 18 months. We have made personnel who regularly deploy away from home for short periods eligible for separation allowances. We have introduced a common leave allowance. We have guaranteed to all personnel a period of leave after an operational deployment so that they can spend time at home with their families. We have increased free telephone call time on operations from three minutes a week to 20. We are also increasing the allowance for the disruption of normal military life--the so-called X-factor.
A key feature of placing service personnel issues firmly at the heart of our thinking, and part of the implementation of our policy for people, is the armed forces overarching personnel strategy. That is a mechanism that clearly identifies specific actions, breakthrough objectives and responsibilities that will be reflected in the Department's corporate plan. Its aim is to promote operational effectiveness by providing a coherent framework for the development of personnel policies for the future. Implementing those policies will enable us to recruit the people we need and to develop, motivate and retain them. I am pleased to announce that the development of that strategy is now complete, and it will be brought into use from April.
We have just embarked on a major review of training and education, both service and civilian. That is part of the continuing process of modernising defence. Training and education are crucial to the provision of front-line capability. Although much of our training is of a very high quality, there is a need for it to be better integrated and more responsive to training requirements, and to take full account of best practice both inside and outside the MOD.
Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex):
The right hon. Gentleman clearly recognises the great importance of armed forces training, and that it should be extremely realistic and pretty robust. Will he therefore explain in a
Mr. Hoon:
Essentially, we are looking to add to the list that I gave earlier many more examples of joint operations between the armed forces. That process began years ago, and I am not suggesting that we have invented it. There is a need for more effective preparation for joint operations and to ensure that training and education integrates activity across the services. In some specific respects, as I have said, we are forming joint organisations that will require a degree of integrated preparation, so that people whose background is in the Royal Navy, for example, will receive training similar to that of people doing a similar job in the Royal Air Force.
Mr. Michael Colvin (Romsey):
The Secretary of State will appreciate that, following the drawdown from Germany, there is a problem with training grounds for infantry. I know that a lot of training is carried out jointly between cavalry and infantry, but the Salisbury training area near my constituency has been completely taken over by tanks, with the result that there is now nowhere for the "poor bloody infantry" to train--at least, its training areas are greatly restricted. What plans does the Ministry of Defence have to take back in hand those MOD farms that are currently let to tenant farmers--admittedly, with provision made for training? There is a shortage of training areas for the infantry; what is being done to address that problem?
Mr. Hoon:
We are carefully considering that problem, because I recognise the importance of having sufficient training grounds. The hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) appeared to be somewhat surprised to learn that his constituency has been entirely overrun by tanks, but given all his complaints about defence cuts, I should be thankful for small mercies. Nevertheless, we are pursuing a review of training grounds and we shall continue to do so.
On the subject of education and training, I recognise that some of our structures have not quite kept pace with the changing world. It is important that we complete our review early next year, and I shall report to the House on its findings. Policy for people is delivering for service personnel. Once again, as the Labour Government have done every year, we are implementing in full the pay rise for our service personnel. In addition, we have made real improvements to opportunities for personal development in the services through our learning forces initiative. We are determined to ensure that service personnel have access to modern learning facilities such as interactive learning centres and the internet. Those measures will provide skills for life, not simply for an individual's career in the armed forces.
Our efforts in this sphere extend to the reserves. Reservists do vital and important work and help to make a real difference as a force for good in the world. They have proved their worth time and again, for example in the Balkans, where more than 10 per cent. of our forces are drawn from the reserves. They help to reduce the demands placed on our regular forces. In addition, there is a real benefit to employers or potential employers of reservists: the training and experience provided in the
reserves, working alongside our world-class regular armed forces, really does give back a better employee--one who is better skilled and better able to take tough decisions.
Following the strategic defence review, we have taken two key steps to make our reserves more usable. First, we have set up the reserves training and mobilisation centre at Chilwell. That is a dedicated facility to handle the needs of the Army and reservists during mobilisation and demobilisation. Secondly, we have completed the reserve mobilisation study, which has clearly shown that compulsory mobilisation of reserves for peace support operations, such as in the Balkans, can be done: it is both legal and feasible. Although there is no operational requirement to mobilise reserves, I assure the House that we will not hesitate to do so if it becomes necessary. That is not a sign of weakness or lack of preparation--quite the opposite.
I have no doubt that we shall shortly hear a great deal about cuts from the Conservatives. I expect that we shall hear even more about the need to tackle overstretch. However, at no time will we hear anything that even remotely resembles a coherent defence policy. What exactly is the Conservative party's policy on defence? In their so-called common-sense revolution policy document, the Conservatives said that they would match commitments to resources and that, unless commitments could be reduced from their current level, Britain would require a larger Army. However, when my hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces asked them to name a commitment that they would cut or into which they would not have entered, they could not name a single one.
While Conservatives talk of cutting commitments, the Labour Government have actually been doing it. We are already committed to increasing the size of the Army by 3,300 people--in many cases, plugging the gaps that were left by the previous Government in terms of support to the front line. What exactly would the Conservatives do differently? Would they spend more on defence? If so, how are they going to pay for it? More important is the question of how they are going to pay for extra defence spending when their own so-called tax guarantee commits them to cutting taxes, regardless of the state of the economy--a policy so barmy that even the shadow Chancellor appears to be trying to get rid of it.
The shadow Chancellor is not the only one. Listen to the comments of the right hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Major), the Conservatives' former leader and Prime Minister, in The Daily Telegraph on 13 October last year:
"In principle, it's a good idea to lower taxes if you can. But to say that you are going to reduce the proportion of taxes to GDP in all circumstances is mad. How do you deliver that in a recession? You don't. You simply don't unless you make such swingeing cuts in the health service and education and the Armed Forces as are inconceivable."
There we have it. Even the previous Conservative Prime Minister does not believe in Conservative policy on tax and spend, particularly when it is applied to our armed forces.
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