Action this day – on three fronts

The Defence Committee of the House, as you would expect at this difficult time for our Armed Forces, has been very busy year. As well as our required report to the House on the Ministry of Defence Annual Report, we are preparing our second Report into the future of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, we will have examined the work of the Meteorological Office, Service Children’s Education, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratories at Porton Down and will shortly embark on an investigation into Defence Medical Services.

Our war-wounded
If you visit our District Hospital at Odstock, the chances are you will bump into service personnel in uniform – or in bed – because the best NHS treatment for them, as well as us, is in our acute hospitals. For many months now, four or five Salisbury clinicians at a time, who are either reservists or who volunteer to serve in the Territorial Army, will have been away in theatre with our forces. This is the right way to look after service men and women who are injured on active duty.

The small size of each of our services cannot now sustain the network of exclusive military hospitals we used to boast. If they did still exist, consultants and nurses would not want to work in them – for lack of patients and the associated ‘skill fade’ that damages careers in medicine.

Instead there is one Defence Medical Services Headquarters in Birmingham (much more sensibly located at the heart of England than the Hasler Royal Naval Hospital at Gosport) plus the very special Hedley Court Rehabilitation Centre and four Ministry of Defence Hospital Units These are wards attached to regular NHS acute hospitals.

That said, there can be no excuse for lack of appropriate security for wounded service men and women medevaced from Iraq or Afghanistan. Nor should they have to share wards (sometimes mixed) with those who do not understand military culture and the special needs of those wounded in battle. What has gone wrong? We will find out – and make recommendation to the Government. I believe we will discover the fault lies with the way the military wards within the NHS hospitals have no set or standard ‘service level agreements’ defined in the ‘Memorandums of Understanding’, or contracts, with each individual hospital.

At present, there is nothing that guarantees priority will be given to the war-wounded, nor wards set aside exclusively for HM Forces. I believe that should change.

Urgent Operational Requirements
It has been clear for more than a year that our Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are seriously short of appropriate light armoured vehicles to replace the ancient ‘Snatch Land Rovers’ and helicopters to provide heavy lift in forward positions. Are you surprised no-one thought of that earlier? Well, they did.

After the First Gulf War, the Army reported an ‘equipment deficiency’ in such vehicles, especially for the Royal Military Police. Nothing happened. After the Second Gulf War this became an ‘urgent operational requirement’. Nothing happened. When I raised this publicly, in the Defence Committee, with the Minister for the Armed Forces last July, neither he nor the General sitting next to him knew anything about it. Then suddenly, in September, it was announced that two types of desperately-needed vehicles were on trial for delivery of the first ones next year.

In 1995 eight Chinook helicopters were ordered from Boeing, at a cost of £33m each, for delivery in 1998. They arrived at Boscombe Down in 2001. But they could not fly operationally because the procured mixture of analogue and digital cockpit software could not be certified as safe.

This month, five years on, Ministers might agree a deal with Boeing to bring them into combat readiness – for up to another £8m each. Again I raised this in Committee with the Chief of Defence Procurement – and I discussed it with the Secretary of State for Defence. I was told the military must determine their priorities. Don’t these people watch TV, read the Papers – or talk to those on the front line?

We all know what the military want – more and better equipment to do their brave job. I regret to say I detect no sense of urgency in this, whatever the Prime Minister may have said about them only having to ask. Watch this space – and watch the skies over Boscombe Down for any sign of Chinook Mark 3s. But don’t hold your breath – I have been told they might fly ‘in the early years of the next decade’ – by which time I hope British Forces will not be in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Pax Romana
The British Empire took our language, the rule of law and capitalism around the globe, with varying degrees of success. It is said that the Roman Empire, unlike the European Union’s attempt at Empire, succeeded because the subject peoples actually wanted what they got in return for subservience – namely bath-houses, loos and underfloor heating.

So I was delighted to inaugurate the new washrooms and baby-changing facilities in the Redlynch and Morgan’s Vale Village Hall. It was a great community event – which has given greater benefit to those villages than most of the decisions imposed from Whitehall in the last year!

Saving the Planet – really!
The Langfords in the Wylye Valley scored a first when we met at Wiltshire Wildlife’s Langford Lakes facility to launch their ‘Climate Friendly Community’ challenge. Scores of locals from senior citizens to school kids have signed personal pledges to adopt greener life-styles and help prevent climate change. I hope this will be the first of many village communities to decide that each one of us really can make a difference. Heaven knows – we need to.

Robert Key MP
November 2006