Defence Oral Questions

Monday saw Defence Questions in the House to the Secretary of State for Defence.

Concerned over the increasing strains placed on our Armed Forces and the detrimental impact ongoing operations on two-fronts might have on our future capabilities and the welfare and morale of our troops, Nick raised the following question:

 Nick Harvey (Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Defence; North Devon, Liberal Democrat)

The Government argue that our troops are stretched but not overstretched, yet the drawdown from Iraq has been postponed and serious recruitment difficulties cannot be entirely masked by a massive increase in recruitment from the Commonwealth. For how much longer can we operate beyond defence planning assumptions without doing damage to our future capabilities? Do we really have the spare capacity to undertake further commitments—in Kosovo, for example—and if we do, what lessons have we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan about making it clear that we are going in for a time-limited shift and not taking on another open-ended commitment?

Bob Ainsworth (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

There is no untime-limited commitment open to us in Kosovo. There is a commitment we will have to deal with and respond to, but it is a time-limited commitment to provide forces to Kosovo. Of course we must be mindful of the hard work we are asking of our armed forces. We must keep that under assessment at all times, and we do so. We take advice from the military chain of command on what is feasible and what is acceptable, and we must ensure that we stay on top of that and do not ask too much of our armed forces, because they are working hard. We are asking an awful lot of them and they deserve our support. They are doing an excellent job, and I am satisfied that they are capable of continuing to do so.

We would be interested to know your views, but we think the Minister’s response fails to give a clear answer and there is still much more that needs to be done to give assurances and guarantees to our armed forces that they will not be asked to do more than what we have the resources, funds and manpower for to ensure success.