Armed forces understaffed by 5,000
There are 5,000 fewer people in the British armed forces than they need, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.
The watchdog says 9,200 servicemen and women left early last year, half of them because of the impact their work – particularly deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq – had on their family life.
A significant proportion, 14.5 per cent, of those serving in January this year had exceeded the army’s “harmony guidelines” on how long they should be at home before deployments at some point in the last 30 months.
More than a quarter (28 per cent) of people who left the armed forces early cited too many deployments as an important factor, 32 per cent named the quality of equipment and 33 per cent said they did not feel valued.
There were more than 180,000 personnel employed in July, a shortfall of 5,170 or 2.8 per cent on what the Ministry of Defence (MoD) thinks it needs. This is a slight increase on previous years, although the forces often work at below manning levels.
The problem is particularly acute in the RAF, where there is a shortfall of 45,210 personnel, and in the navy, where the shortfall is 35,470. Only the army is within “manning balance”, with a shortfall of 1,790 or 1.8 per cent.
The NAO identified 88 “pinch points” where staffing is a particular problem, and these include key medical staff, engineers and bomb disposal experts. For example, levels of intensive therapy nurses are 70 per cent below the target.
It concedes that the MoD has taken action to improve retention of staff, by introducing long service schemes to keep on experienced personnel, and new fast-track procedures for younger recruits.
But it suggests more money should be spent on keeping rather than recruiting staff – retaining 2,500 trained personnel costs about £74 million compared to £189 million to recruit and train a similar number.
However, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox described today’s NAO report as “damning”, saying: “The gap between our commitments and our resources is growing and putting unacceptable pressures on our 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.”
Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey added: “With major manning shortfalls, the government must demonstrate how it expects our troops to cope with the serious challenges ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
However, defence minister Derek Twigg insisted British forces were “stretched but not overstretched” and noted that just under 60 per cent of personnel believed the period between operational deployments was about right.
He said the armed forces were facing tough competition to recruit staff but had reached 98 per cent of its recruitment targets the last five years – “an excellent result”.
“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,” Mr Twigg said.
