From Leigh to You

The Public Accounts Committee that I chair publishes around sixty reports each year. Some hit the headlines and others have a more limited appeal to the general media though they are often reported in detail in specialist magazines. This week’s was very much in the Premier League as reports go and I was inundated with requests for interviews.

Understandably so since it concerned the equipment and support given to our Forces in Afghanistan.

The Committee found that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has had some successes in providing support notably, the delivery of life-saving medical treatment at the front line, but in other areas the process is creaking.

New equipment has mostly performed well but the serious downside is that problems with reliability have sometimes emerged only after the kit has actually been deployed.

The process of getting equipment and supplies out to our forces is undeniably a demanding one but the fact that the MOD continues to fail to meet its own supply chain targets is of concern. The Department must improve its logistic information systems so that it always knows where stocks are and can fully track through the supply chain their movement to our troops.

Iraq and Afghanistan have presented considerable operational challenges for the MOD. Long distances between both countries and the UK, as well as the lack of direct maritime access to Afghanistan, complicate the transporting of personnel and equipment. In addition, undertaking operations in these countries means coping with difficult environmental conditions - harsh and varied terrain, extreme temperatures and dust. In Afghanistan, the pace and intensity of operations continues to be high against a determined enemy threat. The support the Department provides to forces deployed on operations is crucial in enabling military capability.

The provision of medical support, including life-saving treatment at the front line, has been a success. This is reflected in the increasing number of survivors following severe battlefield injuries.

The provision of pre-deployment training is responsive to changing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and theatre commanders are confident of its quality. But pre-deployment training is constrained by a number of factors, particularly the shortage of equipment to train with and delays in replicating Middle Eastern environments. The proportion of soldiers who are not training with their units before deploying is increasing, passing risk on to theatre commanders.

The majority of equipment procured has performed well in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

There have, however, been shortages of spare parts. Parts for the Merlin and Apache helicopters are in short supply, and cannibalisation of helicopters to support the fleets deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan has contributed to an 11% shortfall in helicopters available for training and to support contingent operations.

The Department has not met its supply chain targets for the delivery of stock to Iraq and Afghanistan. Since July 2007 only 57% of demands made in Afghanistan and 71%made in Iraq met the supply chain targets. Measures to improve this performance, including action to increase the proportion of routine stocks that are delivered by surface transport. Despite progress, the Department's logistic information remains inadequate.

I opposed the deployment to both Afghanistan and Iraq but the Government having taken that decision must improve on the present situation.