06 July 2007
Britain's armed forces do not have enough servicemen and women to meet the demands placed on them by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, MPs warned this week.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee reported on July 3 that a shortfall in personnel across the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force increased last year – from 5,170 to 5,850 in April.
'Severe shortfalls' in specialist roles, such as nurses and linguists, are causing particular problems, MPs said, and should be tackled by improving pay regimes – perhaps by making them more flexible.
The MPs' conclusions expose the degree to which Britain's military has become stretched by the two campaigns, and will add further weight to calls for a swift withdrawal from Iraq in particular – or a change in British operations.
Committee chair Edward Leigh said: 'The staffing situation has reached a point where there are simply not enough service people to meet levels of military activity planned some years ago – let alone the heightened demands now being placed on them by commitments such as the Iraq and Afghanistan operations.'
Leigh said the military had been relying on the 'goodwill and courageous spirit' of its personnel for too long. The MoD, he noted, does not consider itself overstretched. 'Let us hope that it does not take some future operational failure on the battlefield for the department to change its mind,' Leigh warned.
As well as Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has continued with its day-to-day operations in Europe and the Balkans. But the services have been dogged by rising numbers of personnel leaving.
'Early departures', as they are known, went up slightly last year. One problem could be the rising number of staff who are away on operations for longer than the MoD's guidelines suggest.
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