| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Lord Carter: My Lords, I suppose the first lesson to learn is that one does not try to make a joke in this House. My noble friend and others have suggested that we should withdraw from the CFP. That is wholly unrealistic. We need a common fisheries policy, and co-operation with other member states is essential given the over-capacity of the fishing fleets and the fact that fish do not respect national boundaries. Perhaps I may for once almost agree with my noble friend. With its enlargement the EU will stretch from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean and from the Atlantic to Poland. When Poland joins it will stretch to Russia. I think that some form of subsidiarity for the CAP is almost inevitable.
Lord Monkswell: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that one of the main elements behind the working time directive is health and safety? While the directive may not apply to self-employed people or share fishermen, surely there is a need for a public education programme to ensure that those people who may not be covered by the directive recognise the benefits of limiting their working hours.
Lord Carter: My Lords, my noble friend is right. I am always surprised that when one reads out to employers who are not familiar with it the components of a working time directive, they say that that is what any good employer would do: minimum daily and weekly rest periods; annual paid holidays; a limit of 48 hours on the average time that employees can be required to work in a week, although member states can provide for people to work for more than 48 hours by voluntary agreement; and restrictions on night work.
Lord Campbell of Croy: My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that safety is of course essential and important, but that on fishing vessels it is achieved by other means and not by a rigid working timetable?
Meningitis: Student Awareness Programme
3.47 p.m.
Lord McNally asked Her Majesty's Government:
-
What steps they are taking to ensure maximum co-ordination between the Department of Health, the Department for Education and Employment and the universities to ensure student awareness of risk and response to meningitis.
Lord McNally: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that full reply, which I am sure gives reassurance to parents and students. I am certain she agrees that it is proper to get meningitis into proper perspective, in that it is a relatively rare disease, but that it is also at a relatively high level of incidence at the moment, particularly in the late teen group. Has her department looked at a wider use of vaccination to combat meningitis? What prospect is there of bringing on new vaccines which are being tested at present?
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for making the point that this is a relatively rare disease, although nonetheless devastating to those whom it affects. On the question of vaccination, the problem is that the strain (meningitis strain C), which at the moment is affecting students in Southampton, for example, is susceptible to a vaccine only in the very short term. The other strain which is more common (meningitis strain B) is not susceptible at all. In fact, on 3rd November the Department of Health announced a £1 million programme to look further into the two vaccines, because there looked to be some optimistic outcomes with regard to the strain C vaccine.
Royal Assent
The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg): My Lords, I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent Act 1967, that the Queen has signified her Royal Assent to the following Acts:
Ministerial and Other Salaries Act, Local Government Finance (Supplementary Credit Approvals) Act.
Defence Policy
3.50 p.m.
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Gilbert) rose to move, That this House take note of Her Majesty's Government's defence policy.
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I was about to say that it was gratifying to see the number of noble Lords in attendance for the debate and I hope that the sudden flight has not been caused by my appearance at the Dispatch Box. It is extremely gratifying to see the number of noble Lords who have put their names down to contribute to our proceedings. It is a pleasure for me, as a Labour Defence Minister, to be opening a debate on defence policy in this House for the first time in 18 years. Not unnaturally, I do so with a certain amount of trepidation because I am well aware of the depth of experience of former serving officers of the highest rank and others who from direct experience know far more than I will ever know.
It is also a great pleasure to address your Lordships today because the Strategic Defence Review, upon which we are embarked, provides an opportunity for us--the whole country--to consider these matters and for your Lordships openly and fully to debate the key issues which will determine our defence and security policy for the next 20 years. That is the time horizon which we have in mind for the review and it is with that defence review that I shall begin my remarks today.
I wish to emphasise that, contrary to the sceptical voices which understandably one hears from time to time, the review is foreign policy led. We have tried to set out the objectives of Her Majesty's Government and to consider and identify the widest possible consensus on our future security needs and the task for our Armed Forces. Above all, we attach the greatest importance to having a non-partisan approach to defence matters in the life of this Government. That is why we have embarked on a level of consultation which is without precedent in defence reviews of the past. I hope that your Lordships will understand that we see today's debate as forming part of the process of consultation.
We have already held three all-day seminars with both Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers present, together with a range of outside experts. We extended invitations to the seminars to all the leading figures in the parties opposite in this House and in another place and we were gratified that other political parties saw fit to make a valuable contribution to the discussions.
We have been discussing Britain's foreign policy objectives, the role of the Armed Forces in meeting those objectives and the planning assumptions on which Britain's future force structures and equipment programmes should be based. The last of the seminars was held yesterday in the Ministry of Defence and was attended by members of the public for the first time. They were invited to participate in the final session. Although we might have been apprehensive about those present having a particular theme which they wanted to pursue, they came forward with high quality questions which, I am delighted to say, set us more work. I set that out in front of your Lordships so that no Member of this House should doubt our desire for the review to be as open, inclusive and comprehensive as possible. I hope that at the end of the process no one will say that they have not had a chance to contribute to the review.
Last week the Secretary of State set out some of the emerging conclusions from the first stage of the review. I wish to emphasise that this is a continuing process and we are not at the stage of making our minds up finally as regards even that first stage. Your Lordships might be interested to know that, in response to the invitation of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State to anyone with good ideas on defence policy to submit them, we have received more than 450 written submissions. A number were received from noble Lords and were distinguished by their thoughtfulness and constructiveness. Some 370 of those contributors gave permission for their contributions to be published. They have now been placed in the Libraries of both Houses where they are available for reference.
We are also consulting with a panel of experts, which includes recently retired officers and officials, experts from the academic community, think-tanks, journalism and the wider business community--indeed, from both sides of the business world. Panel members will provide us with expert opinions and will act as a sounding board for our emerging conclusions.
The policy framework for the review was set out in our manifesto. We promised that we would maintain a strong defence against the security challenges of the post-Cold War era. We made clear that our security must be anchored in NATO. We pledged that we would maintain a minimum credible nuclear deterrent and we stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy defence industry in this country. We firmly believe that the British people are, by inclination, internationalist rather than isolationist. We therefore intend to continue to play a leading role in NATO and the United Nations and the other international organisations to which we belong. Of course, co-operation with the United States, our European partners and allies and like-minded nations will continue to be essential to the security of our country.
Furthermore, we aim to use the superb reputation of our Armed Forces, not just for defence, but as an instrument of influence in a world of collective security and co-operation. It is now nearly 10 years since the end of the Cold War and the removal of what appeared to be a monolithic threat facing the people of western Europe. But, as your Lordships know, during those 10 years many other problems have emerged in different parts of the world. Instability and tensions in Africa, central Asia, south Asia and south-east Asia in particular have the seeds of conflict which could erupt at any time. It is regrettable that in many places fighting still continues. Instability and tensions have been caused by a range of issues, some of which we have seen close to home in our own continent. I shall address the issue of Bosnia later in my remarks.
Over and above the contingent risks to British lives and property, there are certain inescapable commitments which our Armed Forces are required to fulfil; for instance, support to the civil power, particularly in Northern Ireland, and our responsibility towards our remaining 13 dependent territories. In Northern Ireland, we still have 17,000 service men and women in support of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in maintaining law and
order and in the fight against terrorism. We all hope that recent progress in the political process will lead to a constitutional settlement in Northern Ireland and to a lasting peace. But our Armed Forces will of course continue to perform their task with courage and dedication for as long as the need remains. As events even within the last week have shown, unfortunately their presence is still required for some little time yet.Within Europe our commitment to collective security through NATO remains at the heart of our defence and security policy. We will continue to contribute to the maintenance of NATO as a politically and militarily effective alliance.
Beyond Europe, the risks to our interests are likely at this time to be greatest in the Gulf and the Mediterranean. We must be ready to respond to support stability in these regions. It is those interests and obligations which should primarily determine the size and shape of our Armed Forces.
However, in addition to those requirements, Britain also has wider security interests which could lead us to contribute to coalition operations and humanitarian operations. Participation in any of those operations will, however, remain a matter for the choice of the government of the day.
We also wish to reach out to the countries of central and eastern Europe and to extend to the newly emerging democracies the security which we have so long enjoyed in the West. We are looking for new ways to engage with our former adversaries, many of which will involve a positive role for our Armed Forces.
The Secretary of State is anxious to involve officers of our Armed Forces as defence diplomats around the world. He has only just returned from an extremely successful visit to Moscow. I am delighted to tell the House that virtually everything that he suggested by way of confidence-building measures and exchange of visits between officers of all three services on both sides were greeted with an extremely warm reception. He was delighted with that and we hope to build on that in the months ahead.
We are now at the stage of the review at which we are considering what resources, assets and force structures we shall need in future to meet those broad aims. Part of that task will be considering what we must do to fill a number of gaps which already exist. We shall have to make some major decisions; for example, as to the future of our airlift capability, whether we go for a further generation of aircraft carriers and, if so, how many, how big and what shape those aircraft carriers will be. We are now starting to work on those questions and they will come to Ministers for review in the weeks ahead.
As your Lordships will know, this country has already received a substantial peace dividend since the end of the Cold War. Since the mid-1980s, defence expenditure in the United Kingdom has fallen by 29 per cent. in real terms and now stands at 2.7 per cent. of our GDP, which your Lordships may be surprised to know is the lowest level since the mid-1930s.
Since 1990, the strength of the Armed Forces has been reduced by about one-third; that means that in total some 100,000 men and women have left. That has been matched by a similar reduction in equipment levels. However, I must tell your Lordships that, while the reductions in the front line were justified by the change in the strategic setting, cuts elsewhere have left our Armed Forces with serious problems in relation to maintainability, particularly in the tri-service support area of equipment, including the availability of key spares and ammunition. In future, we must pay more attention to sustainability. Never again, I hope, shall we find ourselves in the position in which we were at the beginning of the conflict in the Gulf when we had to cannibalise tanks and planes in western Europe in order to keep a force of relatively modest size fully operational in the Gulf. I hope that never again shall we have to go cap in hand around western Europe to beg ammunition from our allies because our stocks were inadequate.
As I mentioned, of equal concern is the shortage in manpower throughout the Armed Forces: the Army is under strength by well over 4,000 soldiers; the Royal Navy is undermanned by around 1,500 personnel on its trained strength; and the Royal Air Force by around 3,000 personnel.
Coupled with our increased operational commitments since the end of the Cold War, that has resulted in severe overstretch in many areas of our forces. We are determined to do all we can to improve that situation. We are making strenuous efforts to improve recruitment and retention--I want to place great emphasis on the retention factor--and the opportunities we offer to those who choose to serve their country.
Above all, we wish to ensure that we recruit from the widest possible cross-section of our society. To that end, we have already introduced initiatives to improve access to the Armed Forces for members of the ethnic minorities. As I explained in your Lordships' House recently, talks have taken place with local authority officials in Newham, East London, and the Borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands to examine how best to introduce recruiting drives in these areas. In addition, last month the Chief of the General Staff launched the Army's equal opportunities strategy which contains action plans to remove discrimination, sharpen awareness of equal opportunities issues within the Army and increase the number of Army recruits from the ethnic minority population. The other services are equally active in that direction and are extremely anxious also to increase their recruitment from the ethnic communities.
Last week in another place my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence announced that the opportunities for women in the Army would be expanded to enable them to serve in all posts in the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers from 1st April 1998. That will increase the percentage of Regular Army posts open to women from 47 per cent. to 70 per cent. Work is continuing to see whether opportunities for women across the Armed Forces can be expanded still further.
As your Lordships know, our Armed Forces are among the best in the world and they cope extremely well with the demands we place upon them. Wherever they serve, from Northern Ireland to Iraq, from Bosnia to the Falklands, they are held in the highest respect for the professionalism and initiative that they display.
The Government take seriously their obligation to those who have served their country in this way and who are continuing to serve. That is why we have put a high priority on addressing the health concerns of Gulf veterans. Noble Lords will be aware that we have recently doubled the financial resources allocated to dealing with this issue, speeded up the Medical Assessment Programme and extended the programme of medical research. Alas, we do not yet have a solution to the problems which lie behind those illnesses. Nor, for that matter, does the United States, which is able to bring to bear, and has in fact done so, much greater resources on those matters. However, we are determined to be as open as possible with the country on those difficulties.
To that end, we published last week two documents giving detailed information about matters of concern to Gulf veterans. The first was a paper setting out the background to the use of medical countermeasures--vaccines and nerve agent pretreatment (NAPS) tablets--to protect British troops during the Gulf War. The second was a memorandum explaining how Parliament came to be misled about the use of organophosphate pesticides by British forces in that conflict. Copies of both documents have been placed in the Library of the House. Until recently we have tended to concentrate on the sad past of these events and we are now looking to the future to ascertain what we can do to help those Gulf veterans who are ill. The House has taken a close interest in the matter and will no doubt continue to do so.
I turn now to equipment issues. There is no doubt that in the sphere of equipment procurement we need to do better. We need to eliminate the cost overruns and delays which have characterised all too many equipment projects in the past. My right honourable friend's "smart procurement" initiative seeks to deliver improvements in performance: faster, cheaper and better defence procurement than heretofore. We have been involved in extensive consultations through the National Defence Industries Council to that end. I am delighted to say that industry is responding enthusiastically to the initiatives that we are starting to take. Above all, we hope to involve industry in the concept phase of new systems that we need to procure; in other words, we will not be going to industry and saying, "This is the sort of frigate (or the sort of aircraft) that we want to have; you build it for us as quickly, cheaply and reliably as possible". We are saying to industry, "These are the tasks that the services will need to perform. We want you to help us to devise the pieces of kit which will be efficient, reliable, cheap and on time to the advantage of both industry and the Ministry of Defence".
As I said, industry has responded extremely enthusiastically to our initiatives in that way. Industry has proved that it can adapt and meet new challenges. Indeed, its export achievements are quite remarkable.
Your Lordships may not realise it, but the British defence industry obtained nearly one-quarter of the world defence export market last year. But to maintain that position British products must be capable, innovative and reasonably priced. When they are all of these they will have the full and energetic support of Her Majesty's Ministers in trying to achieve the export markets that they seek.The Government are committed to ensuring that the substantial investments that the British defence industry has made in advanced technologies, and also the investment made by the Ministry of Defence in the area, are not wasted. We wish to spread the technological processes and skills developed for defence into new civil markets through a defence diversification agency. Such links will strengthen the industrial base of this country and contribute towards improving the country's overall economic performance. We hope to publish a Green Paper on these matters before Christmas. I trust that all noble Lords who have an interest in the subject will contribute to the consultation exercise which will then follow.
Our search for greater efficiency in all areas of defence spending is also essential, not only to achieve value for money for the taxpayer, but also to free up resources to enable us to tackle the capability and equipment problems faced by our Armed Forces. We simply must improve efficiency and release surplus assets to that end. Even so, however successful we are, we shall find ourselves making hard choices about the priorities that we will have to choose.
In the six months since this Government came into office we like to think that we have achieved a fair amount in the defence and security field. We have fulfilled our commitment to maintain Trident to provide a minimum, but credible, nuclear deterrent which will continue to underpin our collective security. We aim to develop the stability in which we can take forward our commitment to global nuclear disarmament. We have kept our promise to ban the export, import, transfer and manufacture of anti-personnel landmines and have announced a five-point plan to increase the contribution that the Army makes to humanitarian demining. We are taking forward our proposals on defence diversification.
We have also demonstrated the importance that we attach to the men and women of our Armed Forces at all stages in their service careers. Our recruiting initiatives for ethnic minorities, our expansion of the opportunities for women in the Army and our efforts to find answers to the serious problems faced by some Gulf War veterans are all examples of practical action that we have taken.
It is the men and women of our Armed Forces and the civilians and civil servants who support them who put our defence and security policies into effect. We owe it to them and to the people of this country to provide a clear sense of direction for defence into the next century. That is a major aim of the Strategic Defence Review and through it we will work to
achieve our goal: a strong defence for the United Kingdom, based on the broadest possible consensus of its citizens.Moved, That this House take note of Her Majesty's Government's defence policy.--(Lord Gilbert.)
4.15 p.m.
Lord Trefgarne: My Lords, perhaps I may begin by saying how much I welcome today's important debate. I should, first, declare an interest in that I am an adviser to a French aerospace company and a director of a British engineering company, neither of which have significant defence business so far as I know. I should also like to say how much I am looking forward to hearing the two maiden speeches later this afternoon. I had the privilege of knowing both the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, and the noble Lord, Lord Renwick, in another incarnation. I am particularly pleased that we have another opportunity to discuss defence matters following our debate on the Armed Forces in July and at a time when the Government's defence review is now well and truly underway.
I should like to mention two points upon which the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, touched in his opening remarks. He talked about the new employment of concepts in developing defence procurement policy. I welcome that; indeed, it sounds to me to be a very sensible approach. However, I hope that the noble Lord will recognise that it is not the first time that we have attempted to employ such techniques. In my own time, we used to develop what was called the "cardinal points principle", which was very much the same as that which the noble Lord described this afternoon. I believe that it works well when industry can be persuaded to respond effectively to that approach. I wish the noble Lord well in the policy that he has declared and hope that it works.
The Minister also referred to the success of our defence export business. Again, I very much welcome the words of support which he offered to that industry. However, I hope that the noble Lord will not mind me saying that those sentiments were not always echoed by him and his colleagues when they were in opposition and when a number of important defence export related matters came to public notice.
However, there are two issues upon which I should now like to concentrate my remarks. The first relates to the defence review to which the noble Lord referred. I have never been wholly certain about the true reason for this review. There was some surprise when it was announced, rather hastily after the Government came to office earlier this year, during the Easter Recess when Parliament was not sitting. I have not been alone in my belief that the review would inevitably be dictated by the wishes of the Treasury to find savings. Indeed, the noble Lord acknowledged that fact back in July when he gave your Lordships the reassurance that, while the Treasury would probably try to get involved--I believe that that is what he said--it would be up to defence Ministers to justify the present resources that the country devotes to its own defence. The noble Lord announced today how that proportion of our GDP is now declining. The noble Lord may recall telling your Lordships, on
2nd July (at col. 285 of Hansard) that he hoped that Ministers would have "little difficulty" in so persuading their Treasury colleagues. I hope that he succeeds.The noble Lord's right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Defence, told another place last week that the Government had listened to the views of many people in the past five-and-a-half months. Again, the noble Lord referred to that fact when he spoke earlier. As his right honourable friend said the other day:
- "All the options will be given careful consideration, to see what is in the best interests of the effectiveness of our armed forces and what is required for our country".--[Official Report, Commons, 27/10/97; col. 612.]
Those were welcome words. But the omens are not very good. With the help of hindsight, we now know that defence Ministers have not been wholly successful in fighting off the Treasury. The "iron grip" of the Chancellor--if that is the way to describe it--has so far won the day, at least on a couple of occasions. That is a worrying development.
We have some right to be concerned because history has shown that the people in the Treasury are not always the best people to ask to evaluate our future strategic and security arrangements. It is now no secret that the Government view the Ministry of Defence as an easy target when making defence cuts. The first blow came when the Chancellor boldly announced that a fine of £168 million had been imposed on the Ministry of Defence to find money for the health service. That early announcement involved the Chancellor of the Exchequer--but not, surprisingly, the Defence Secretary--saying that the Government were diverting resources from the defence budget into the National Health Service.
More recently we have heard that the costs of the Bosnia operation may in future have to be met from the defence budget, having hitherto been met from the central reserve. That is another £200 million or so a year, but I gather that that has not yet been finally decided. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, will at least be able to resist that, and that he will tell us so when he replies to the debate.
At this point I wish to refer to our own independent nuclear deterrent. As your Lordships know, this is now represented by our fleet of Trident submarines. The fourth vessel has been ordered and will be delivered in due course. I cannot overstate the importance of our independent nuclear deterrent. While it is, of course, primarily assigned to NATO, we have always reserved the right and the ability to use it for our own purposes when our supreme national interest so required. It is that national independence which so adds to its effectiveness as a deterrent by adding to the uncertainties in the mind of any potential enemies in anticipating our likely response to an attack. The aggressor knows that we, on our own, are in a position to inflict unacceptable damage should we be the victims of an attack. Indeed it is often said, and, I believe, rightly, that our position at the top table of world affairs, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council--what my noble friend Lord Hurd has described as our ability to punch above our weight--is due, in no small measure, to our nuclear status.
In that context, I ask the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, to assure us in the plainest terms that there is no question of any reduction or downgrading in the size or effectiveness of our Trident fleet as regards the current defence review. Can the noble Lord specifically confirm that all four submarines will be fully commissioned and, as was the case with Polaris--continuously for more than 30 years--that there will be one submarine on patrol seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year, for as far ahead as we can foresee? There have been disquieting rumours in that regard which I hope the noble Lord can dispel.
I wish to touch briefly on the work of the cadet organisations. I am vice chairman of the Army Cadet Force. In the previous Parliament much appreciation was expressed on both sides of the House for the work of all three cadet organisations. There was indeed a wish that their work could be extended in view of the important part which they played not only in developing team working and public spiritedness in our youth but also because they are an important recruiting ground for our Armed Forces.
I have seen at first hand the involvement of the ACF and the ATC at many important national functions. I should be grateful if the Minister could confirm the wholehearted support of the Government to maintain and, I hope, to build upon the services' involvement in the cadet organisations which work so uniquely in harmony with civilian-funded organisations. The ATC in particular is especially sensitive to "salami slicing", as it is called, because of the comparatively high cost of providing sufficient flying time for cadets, which forms such a vital part of their activity. I hope that the recent cuts in that activity can be restored as soon as practicable. Can the noble Lord give an assurance about the general level of funding for cadet organisations and the ACF in particular?
I wish to touch on another important point which your Lordships dwelt upon at the end of the previous Session of Parliament before we rose for the Recess, and that is the case of Guardsmen Wright and Fisher, two soldiers who were on duty in Northern Ireland and who were tried and convicted of murder in somewhat unusual circumstances and who remain in prison. Many of us feel that that is wholly inappropriate. I know that their case was recently considered again by the Parole Board in Northern Ireland and I imagine that advice is now upon the desk of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Will the noble Lord please tell us what the latest position is and when we can now expect those two soldiers to be released, as we all believe would be appropriate?
This debate is taking place today in the context of the defence review which the noble Lord described in some detail. I have to tell him that I think that the jury is still out on whether that will be an effective and satisfactory process. Some of us are rather concerned. The noble Lord has gone a little way to reassure us, but perhaps not the whole way. Perhaps he can go further when he replies to the debate later this evening.
4.26 p.m.
Lord Inge: My Lords, I am grateful for your indulgence. In the short time that I have been a Member of this place I have been struck by the breadth of knowledge and quality of debate. After such a short time in the learning and listening mode, I am therefore wary about speaking on any subject.
However, your Lordships will realise the Armed Forces are deeply interested in the strategic defence review. I hope your Lordships will allow me, as a previous chief of the defence staff, to make a few general and, I hope, helpful remarks.
First, I am delighted that the Secretary of State for Defence has made it clear that the review will be an open one and will involve wide consultation. I am even more glad that it has been made clear that our Armed Forces will retain the capability to take part in high intensity conflict. This is a critical issue and one that must not be fudged. It has been stated many times in this place that it is easy to move down the operational scale of conflict to low intensity or peacekeeping operations if--I stress the word "if"--you have a high intensity capability. However, if you lose the high intensity capability--that is, the ability to go to war and fight and win, as we did in the Falklands and the Gulf--it takes years and years to get it back in terms of equipment, training and expertise, and it will cost a great deal of money.
In addition, many conflicts have a nasty habit of starting at the low intensity end and escalating to high intensity conflict. We need to recognise that if we do not have a high intensity capability our sailors, soldiers and airmen will be placed at greater personal risk. When we come to consider the strategic defence review I believe it will be important for us to analyse what we mean by high intensity conflict and to be clear about what capabilities we need. It is easy to say the words "high intensity conflict" but it is much, much more difficult to analyse what they mean. I hope I may suggest what I believe are some important pegs on which to hang that capability.
First, we need to recruit and to retain--I stress the word "retain"--top quality servicemen and women. I was delighted to hear what the Minister said in that respect. It was the great Field Marshal Lord Slim, my hero and, of course, the father of the noble Viscount, Lord Slim, who, when asked to speak by the BBC about the greatest soldier he had known in a series entitled "The Mark of Greatness", said,
- "Any nation now and then may throw up a great man but unless its people have greatness in them it will not cut a very noble figure at the bar of history. An army must have Generals to lead it but, if the only men in it who have the mark of greatness are the Generals it will win few victories".
I am convinced that that applies to all our servicemen today.
In that connection, I welcome what has been said in the other place about overstretch and manning problems. I await with interest to hear what the solutions of those problems might be.
The second peg is the capability, the quality and the technology of the three fighting services' forward equipment programme. It will be expensive but it is fundamentally important.
The third peg is endurance and sustainability. The Minister said a number of words about that. It is about operational logistic support, the rotation of units and individuals and reinforcements. The question we have to ask ourselves is: have we the capability to support and sustain operations in different parts of the world for longer periods than we anticipated under Options for Change? Understandably, after the cold war we made some assumptions which, with the benefit of hindsight, have not turned out to be quite as we anticipated. Here I am sure some rethinking is necessary, not least in the critical area of medical support.
As regards training, your Lordships will recognise that training and education are vital in any walk of life. In the Armed Forces, they are even more critical. But they cost money, and we need to ensure that we have allowed adequate provision in terms of time, training areas and money. Training covers a very wide spectrum from schools of excellence like the staff college to sophisticated and complex all-arms combined exercises. If we lose our training edge, we shall be increasing the chances of operational failure.
My next peg is readiness. Holding armed forces at high degrees of readiness costs money, is demanding for the individuals and families involved, and impacts on training, operational logistic support and equipment availability. The end of the cold war allowed us to reduce some states of readiness, but I believe that we should be wary of reducing them too far. The experience of the Falklands, the Gulf War and elsewhere is to expect the unexpected and to expect it at short notice.
My next peg is the need to give our servicemen and women a reasonably balanced and stable quality of life. I am not talking about pay, conditions of service or housing, critically important although those are. I am talking about getting a better balance between time on training, time on operations and time with families and friends.
My last but one peg is difficult to talk about. I wish, however, to try to talk about ethos. I believe that it is fundamentally important to armed forces; and we need to understand it. It is the spirit which motivates armed forces and makes men and women put their lives at risk. It is certainly not a policy; nor is it a science. It is a mixture of emotional, intellectual and moral values. It is about comradeship and team spirit. It is about integrity. And it is about the high quality of people one is fortunate enough to work and serve with.
It is also about tradition. But let me make it absolutely clear that I am not talking about the sort of tradition that means that you never do something new or for the first time. Nor is it about tradition that smacks of bigotry or racism. But if you regard tradition as a standard of conduct handed down to you and below which you try never to fall, then I believe tradition, instead of unsettling or annoying you, will be a handrail to steady and guide you when the going gets rough. I think that tradition is also about recognising the importance that
human beings attach to a sense of continuity, familiarity and pride in the institution in which they live and work. I happen to believe that the institution in which I was so lucky to serve is one of the great institutions of our nation.My final peg is stability. I know that we live in a world of constant change and that we must always be looking for improvement. But the manner in which the Armed Forces have adapted over the past 40 years or so has been remarkable. They have met with great humour and effectiveness a wide variety of challenges. However, I sense strongly that after the strategic defence review they need to be left alone. To have total stability is not possible, but some of the upheavals following Options for Change and Frontline First/The Defence Cost Studies are still to be completed. I know that a number of noble Lords have visited front line units and will have been impressed by their sense of purpose, professionalism and spirit. What I would call short term morale is extremely high. But what one might call long term morale is not so good: it is a little shaky. The coming generation worry about the future. That is why they need to feel that they will have a more stable base on which to take their life forward.
When the Secretary of State for Defence spoke at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies he quoted from General Hackett's Profession of Arms. He said:
- "What a society gets in its Armed Forces is exactly what it asks for, no more and no less. What it asks for tends to be a reflection of what it is. When a country looks at its fighting forces, it is looking in a mirror; if the mirror is a true one, the face that it sees will be its own".
I fully endorse that sentiment. However, I would add that in the same book--I have to quote from memory--General Hackett also said:
- "In a democracy it is the duty of armed forces, to furnish to a democratically elected government, in operational situations where force of arms is or is likely to be used, the greatest number of possible options for action".
A government will be given as many options as they are prepared to pay for. The better the quality of the Armed Forces, the greater the strength and scope of those Armed Forces, the better their equipment, leadership and training, then the greater will be the number of options that are open to that government for their use. My Lords, you get what you pay for.
4.36 p.m.
Lord Vivian: My Lords, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, on his excellent maiden speech, especially as some years ago I was one of his four subordinate commanders when he was Commander-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine. It would be wise to reflect very carefully on his words of wisdom if this country is to continue to have the finest Armed Forces in the world and to ensure that those men and women retain the will and courage to win battles in the defence of our freedom. For, rest assured, without our insurance policy of possessing the appropriate numbers of well trained and properly equipped Armed Forces, the freedom of the British people is put at risk.
The noble and gallant Lord has had a most distinguished military career. I am sure that your Lordships will agree with me when I say that his knowledge and experience will add to the wisdom of your Lordships' House. We very much look forward to his contribution in the future.
I thank the Minister for instituting today's debate. I take the opportunity to thank him also for the detailed and courteous reply he sent me after I submitted a paper on the strategic defence review on behalf of the All-Party Defence Study Group.
The debate is about defence policy and I shall concentrate on that aspect; however, I shall also touch on some other important subjects to be addressed by the strategic defence review in the second phase of its deliberations. I understand that our foreign policy will be based around the protection of the United Kingdom, her dependent territories and the 10 million United Kingdom people abroad. A leading role will be taken in NATO and the United Nations. An isolationist policy is rejected. Our policy will continue to be an internationalist one facing threats to British interests overseas and ensuring the protection of our world-wide trade; it will continue the transatlantic link which is vital to us; and it will oppose international and national terrorism which exists in Northern Ireland. We shall also pay special attention to matters in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Gulf.
If this is somewhere near our foreign policy base lines, our defence policy should be formulated along the lines of the already agreed retention of Trident, our nuclear deterrent. However, I am concerned--we have already heard from my noble friend Lord Trefgarne about this--that some people think that it will no longer be necessary to have a Trident on patrol. I argue with some strength that Trident not on patrol and alongside in Faslane can in no way be considered a form of deterrent. Furthermore, to start patrolling again in times of tension might be seen by the world as escalating some international crisis.
We shall require our Armed Forces to support the civil community in Northern Ireland in the fight against terrorism. To continue to have a leading role and to be able to influence NATO, we need to retain the post of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander (Europe) and the Commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps which will be achieved if we retain the 1st Armoured Division in Germany. All services must be trained in high intensity conflict to develop a natural war-fighting capability. If we wish to keep our seat on the United Nations Security Council, we must deploy forces to take part in peacekeeping, peace support and peace enforcement operations.
It is essential that we have rapid reaction forces such as the Joint Rapid Deployment Force for United Nations and NATO operations. We must protect our interests in Europe, the Middle East, the Gulf and the Mediterranean and safeguard our wider security interests by contributions to our allies in coalition operations and humanitarian missions.
It will not be possible to carry out these policies unless our defence forces are recruited up to their establishments. They must continue to be properly
trained and be equipped with the most up-to-date and highly technical weapon systems. Third world countries have been buying very sophisticated weapon systems and it would be highly dangerous and irresponsible to deploy our Armed Forces with out-of-date equipment. They must be well paid and well housed; receive the appropriate allowances whenever they are entitled to them; and enjoy the stability and reduced overstretch which will provide a better quality of life.If our future foreign and defence policies are as I have described them, there is one abundantly clear deduction. It is that there cannot be one single penny cut from the defence budget. Our Armed Forces are desperately overstretched and any further budgetary cuts will result in a reduction to our commitments. The Prime Minister has promised to leave the defence budget as it was set by the last government for a period of two years from the time he took office. I do not wish to become involved in the issue of the recent £169 million so-called "fine" levied on the MoD by the Treasury for an MoD overspend last year. But it is categorically important that the Minister should reassure your Lordships that the Prime Minister intends to keep to his word and that there will be no cuts to the defence budget over the next 18 months. In this I include the central reserves continuing to pay for our commitment to Bosnia as those costs are not, so far as I am aware, part of the defence budget.
There is no time to get involved in military capabilities, except to emphasise once again that the vital need to have a war-fighting capability based on high intensity conflict with sophisticated weapon systems continues to be essential, especially when the lead times for new weapons is around 15 years and particularly as Russia, China, central Asia, the Gulf, the Middle East and north Africa are all in such a delicate and fragile state. Surely we have learnt a lesson that an ill-equipped force such as the United Nations Protection Force does not achieve its missions whereas the Intervention Force and the Stabilisation Force, equipped with tanks, artillery, attack helicopters, armoured infantry and combat aircraft, achieve theirs. It takes years to train for, and be successful in, high intensity conflict and yet only months to train as peacekeepers. In view of the multiplicity of weapons on the international arms market, our Armed Forces will have to face up to sophisticated and lethal weapon systems even in small regional disputes.
I respectfully remind your Lordships that among our NATO allies and any future coalition partners, it is only the United Kingdom and the United States of America who have any real war-fighting capability and carry out realistic training. To deter a crisis requires rapid deployment with strong all arms and well balanced combat forces. Anything else will fail.
I turn to some matters of particular significance to the Armed Forces. My first point relates to states of readiness. Although not needed at anything like the intensity of the cold war period, there is still a reasonable degree of readiness required. With the much reduced numbers of regiments, brigades and divisions, too high degrees of readiness can reduce training and bring about skill fade.
If this is to be overcome in the Army, there should be a two-divisional structure, each division consisting of three brigades. This would continue to allow the deployment of one division to Germany and one division in the United Kingdom, both complementary to each other, each brigade operating on a three-year cycle covering a year of training, a year of operations in its priority role and at high readiness, and a year operating in a supportive role, in reserve and available for out-of-role commitments such as an armoured or artillery regiment deployed out of role to the United Nations forces in Cyprus or to Northern Ireland. To achieve that will require an establishment of nine armoured regiments, two in each of the three brigades in Germany and one in each of the three brigades in the United Kingdom.The tank is essential on the battlefield for at least the next 10 years and, as I pointed out in my recent paper to the strategic defence review, the 38 Tank Regiment is flawed and should be replaced by the 42 Tank Regiment which would provide three squadrons of 14 tanks each. This radical change can be implemented through the process known as "whole fleet management" which has the advantage of using a smaller number of total tanks combined with the use of simulators such as precision gunnery training equipments.
We live in highly volatile, dangerous and uncertain times. If our states of readiness and reaction times are to be correct, our military and political intelligence must be flawless. The importance of collecting, assessing and disseminating intelligence concerning potential threats to the United Kingdom is a vital ingredient in providing warning times and future intentions of the enemy. Those essential assessments should allow the Government early response time and, if required, immediate and decisive action. The Defence Intelligence Staff and all the other agencies outside the Ministry of Defence must be given the resources to provide modern and sophisticated systems for intelligence data collecting.
I now turn to our reserve forces. Our volunteer and reserve forces are a relatively inexpensive insurance policy against the unexpected and usefully fill specialist posts which may not normally be required in peacetime. Their roles have been widened and they are filling gaps in the regular forces, especially in Bosnia. What better example can I quote than the fact that my noble friend Lord Attlee is at this very moment serving with his TA regiment in Bosnia for six months? I am sure that all your Lordships will join with me when I wish him and all our reserve and regular forces good fortune in their operational deployments. The TA and reserves keep alive our heritage of martial spirit, the ethos of volunteer service and strands of organisation and discipline within the fabric of our society. This, together with unit and national loyalty, is a focus for respect for defence and a valuable element in the national character. Their value to the nation goes well beyond their short-term usefulness and any cuts to the TA and reserves would be a false economy.
For well over a year, the All-Party Defence Study Group has taken a particular interest in the Defence Medical Services. I am grateful to the Minister for the Armed Forces for keeping us informed on Defence Secondary Care Agency matters. It will come as no
surprise to your Lordships that the defence study group recommended in its submission to the strategic defence review that the three remaining service hospitals should revert to the control of the surgeon general on a tri-service basis. It also proposed that the three remaining Ministry of Defence hospital units should be placed under single service control, although staffed similarly on a tri-service system. This would have the advantage of saving the majority of the £2.27 million running costs caused in the main by staff costs. I now understand that changes in the National Health Service structures and clinical practices will leave the Defence Secondary Care Agency in its present form unable to attract the number of patients and case mix to allow military clinicians to retain and develop their skills and maintain their professional accreditation. A review has been set up to advise on the way ahead. It is still our strongly held view that the overall control of the service hospitals and the future of the Ministry of Defence hospital units, in whatever form they end up, should all be put back under service control. I hope that the three single service medical directors are consulted on that issue and are invited to submit their plans and proposals as to how they would like secondary care organised for the future.The last government implemented Options for Change and the Defence Costs Study which involved severe reductions and reorganisation in all three services. Their strength was cut by 100,000. The infantry battalions were reduced from 55 to 40; tanks from 699 to 304; frigates from 48 to 35; submarines from 28 to 12 and fighters and bombers from 630 to 500. It is not as though the last government took no action to reduce our Armed Forces after the cold war; if anything, their cuts were too severe. However, let it be clearly understood that if the United Kingdom wishes to continue to play a leading role in the world by retaining our seat at the Security Council, by leading in NATO and by being a force of good in the world, neither our Armed Forces nor our commitments can be cut any further. There is simply no room for any more manoeuvre and unless steps are taken to reduce overstretch, morale will plummet, retention will fail and recruits will not be forthcoming to join the services.
There is only one area that may produce savings; that is, through the procurement executive adopting different procedures along the lines of industry, as the Minister said earlier. If the United Kingdom is to carry out a planned future defence policy and our equipment programme is to remain the same, there can be no reduction in the defence budget.
I should also like to add a tribute to our magnificent Armed Forces. They frequently face danger with the utmost courage. They set a shining example to us all and are more than worthy of our greatest respect, which the nation will be showing them on this Remembrance Sunday. We owe each of them a great debt of gratitude. The country is justly proud of having such professional and highly skilled Armed Forces.
4.52 p.m.
Lord Renwick of Clifton: My Lords, first, I thank noble Lords on all sides of the House for the kindness and generosity they have shown in welcoming a newcomer. I have been most grateful for it.
I believe that there is, on all sides of this House, strong support and admiration for our Armed Forces, their extraordinary professionalism and military skill, and the courage and sacrifice they have displayed in numerous crises since the war. I am conscious how many Members of the House have served with immense distinction in our Armed Forces, and none more so than the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge. I should like to say how strongly I agree with everything he said.
From the vantage point of 30 years in the Foreign Service I have been well placed to witness the enormous contribution the Armed Forces have made, and continue to make, to this country's influence and reputation. In Rhodesia we saw the British Army play a crucial part in bringing an end to a war which had already claimed 30,000 lives.
In the Falklands we witnessed our Armed Forces accomplishing a militarily exceptionally difficult task, operating 3,000 miles from their nearest base with no adequate cover against numerically superior forces. In those most difficult circumstances a remarkable victory was won. In the Gulf War the consequences for the NATO Alliance if this country had not been prepared to join the United States in sharing the military risks of that venture do not bear thinking about. In that conflict too our forces covered themselves with glory.
Nor would there be any peace in Sarajevo today but for the efforts of the British military contingent in Bosnia. I need hardly mention the enormous contribution the Armed Forces have made to peace and stability in Northern Ireland and the central role we continue to play in NATO. Those have been the accomplishments of our Armed Forces over the past 20 years and we are all rightly proud of them.
Those forces appear to me today to be more than ever in need of your Lordships' support. The collapse of the Soviet Union enabled us substantially to reduce defence expenditure, and rightly so. But, as my noble friend made clear, our forces today are a fraction of their former size. The total infantry strength of the British Army, excluding the territorial forces, is 25,000; the British Army will soon have fewer than 400 tanks. The US Marine Corps alone today has more planes than the RAF, more ships than the Royal Navy and more men than the British Army. Against that backdrop of slender resources and large commitments, the case for a defence review seems to me to be unanswerable.
My right honourable friend the Prime Minister and my noble friend made clear that this is not to be another cost-cutting exercise. It is a foreign policy review and its purpose is to determine how resources can be applied most effectively. It is extremely important that that should remain so for it is surely self-evident that, without a follow-on force in Bosnia, to which we will need to make a continuing substantial contribution, we should soon see a return to anarchy in the former Yugoslavia. I was glad to see the recognition yesterday by the US Secretary of State that US forces also will have to stay in Bosnia.
We all hope that current negotiations will lead to a permanent ceasefire in Northern Ireland; but, sadly, we cannot count on it. There are other threats this country
faces, including the evident determination of the regime in Iran to become a military nuclear power. We shall have a vital role to play in the expansion of NATO to the new democracies in Eastern Europe and in the efforts which are being made to strengthen European defence co-operation. The Government are concerned, and rightly so, to re-establish a leadership role for this country in Europe. Our Armed Forces are the most admired in Europe. I am sure that noble Lords will agree that it is of the highest importance that they should remain so.My noble friend the Minister for Defence Procurement, throughout his career, has shown himself to be a staunch defender of the Armed Forces. I share his enthusiasm for conservation and know that we can count on him to help ensure that the British infantrymen and cavalrymen do not themselves become an endangered species. I am confident that the services will continue to receive the support they deserve, both from this House and from the Government, for I am convinced that we are united in our determination to maintain the morale and excellence of our Armed Forces.
4.59 p.m.
Lord Campbell of Alloway: My Lords, it is not only a privilege but indeed a pleasure to be able, on your Lordships' behalf, to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Renwick of Clifton, on his erudite and interesting maiden speech, which was so relevant to this debate. That may reflect some "cousinage" with a fellow director of Robert Fleming, General Sir Peter de la Billiere. The noble Lord's long and distinguished experience at the Foreign Office, later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, culminating as our Ambassador in Washington, is now at the disposal of your Lordships' House as the doughtiest of defenders of our Armed Forces. We shall all much look forward to the noble Lord's contributions to our debates as often as he is able to attend.
I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, for introducing this debate and the open manner in which he did so. At this stage of a long debate, with so many distinguished speakers, it is hardly appropriate that a post-war senior subaltern in the Reserve should speak for long. However, I wish to welcome the process of consultation on the Strategic Defence Review, as described by the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert. Nevertheless, it is difficult for the relatively uninitiated such as I to enter upon any constructive debate without having read it. The declaration as to policy is also very welcome. The interests and obligations are indeed well conceived and I think it is a new approach to procurement--I stand open to correction if it is not; but as it was explained, it is surely a well founded innovation.
However, certain assurances are indeed sought, for the reasons advanced in particular by my noble friend Lord Trefgarne. Is defence of the realm the overriding priority of this Government? Was that defence budget settled to meet foreseeable defence requirements in weaponry, manpower, training and education, as referred to by the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge?
Was this as envisaged at page 38 of the Labour manifesto as a broad defence commitment? Was that in relation to foreseeable and foreseen commitments? Were the unforeseeable requirements to be met from the central or contingency reserve, whatever one calls it, referred to by my noble friend Lord Vivian a moment ago? Is the overriding priority as reflected in the Labour manifesto put to hazard in any way by the proposed massive depletion in funding, and, if not, why not so, if there is a depletion in funding?We are entitled to know the order of any reduced provision, if there be one; the nature of any reduced provision, if such is the case; and whether in effect this is a case of robbing defence Peter, as the press seem to put it, in order to pay NHS Paul? We also wish to have the assurance that the Territorials and Volunteer Reserves shall retain their secured provision. I shall not elaborate because it was so well explained, if I may say so with respect, by my noble friend Lord Vivian.
One seeks also, if one may, an assurance that due account has been taken of overstretch in the context of recruitment. As to recruitment, overstretch cannot wholly be mitigated by the recruitment of women. There is the "apple factor" at sea, and on land the limitation of physical capability to heave around heavy loads, for example--speaking from experience--heavy artillery shells.
May I ask also, has due account been taken of the disincentive to enlist unless and until the law of homicide has been amended and the mandatory life sentence for murder has been abolished? I am not suggesting that there should be one law for the armed services and another for civilians: I am talking about the general law. But it affects the Army and the armed services in circumstances in which civilians do not find themselves. This general question has particular reference to the cases of Clegg and the two Scots guardsmen. It is understood that Clegg has now been released on licence but the two Scots guardsmen remain in prison. The release of Clegg was on the advice of the review board which was acted upon.
In a parliamentary Written Answer to a Question put by my noble friend Lord Westbury on 3rd November in the Official Report at col. WA275, the Secretary of State claims public interest immunity from disclosure of the advice of the review board. Such is his entitlement: it is not open to reasonable criticism. However, there is more to it than that because there are no grounds on which a refusal to answer the question I am about to put could be refused on grounds of public immunity. The question is, did the decision to defer the question of release for another year, taken by the Secretary of State, truly reflect the advice of the review board tendered in each case. Having given due notice to the Government Chief Whip of this question, I respectfully seek an answer. In a sense your Lordships' House is a court of law and it is right here that I should ask the question and that I should get an answer.
At all events, I most respectfully ask the noble Lord, Lord Gilbert, to use his good offices to seek to call in those documents. The confidentiality to one Secretary of State can be held on the grounds of public immunity,
but there is no reason why public immunity should run to prevent the noble Lord from seeking those documents from another Secretary of State. Will he do that? Will he also be good enough to seek to ensure that these guardsmen are dealt with according to the advice of the review board, each on the merits?I apologise for the time I have taken. However, before concluding, I wish to associate myself with the most moving tributes that have already been paid by noble and gallant Lords and other noble Lords to our Armed Forces.
5.11 p.m.
Lord Chalfont: My Lords, although I know it is not desirable to have a succession of formal congratulations on maiden speeches, I hope the House will indulge me, on the grounds of my personal association with both the maiden speakers today, to offer my congratulations. The maiden speech of the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, was precisely what one would have expected. It was a carefully measured, common sense and constructive speech of the kind one might expect from one of our most distinguished senior soldiers and, unhappily, one who might possibly be described as our last field marshal. As for the noble Lord, Lord Renwick of Clifton, I can only say that his speech was as brief, as relevant and as cogent as most of the advice that he used to give me when I was a Minister in the Foreign Office. I very much hope that I shall be here many times to hear both the noble Lord, Lord Renwick, and the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, speaking in your Lordships' House.
I want to begin my remarks by thanking the Minister for giving us an opportunity to debate the Government's defence policy and also congratulating him on the clear, unambiguous and practical way in which he introduced the debate. Perhaps I may be allowed to intrude a faintly personal note here in that it was this week 33 years ago that I first took my seat in your Lordships' House. I mention it simply to say that in those days the government of the day had a most robust attitude towards the defence of the realm. Indeed, how could it be otherwise when the noble Lord, Lord Healey, was Secretary of State for Defence?
Much has changed, but I think it would be right and fair to express the view that this Government also have, so far, taken a welcome and robust attitude towards defence policy. I would only express the hope that that view will not be changed by the outcome of the current defence review, when it is known. As the Minister well knows, there will be pressures, both from inside his own party and from elsewhere, to modify their policy, sometimes on financial and economic grounds, but also at a more emotional level. There will be inevitable complaints on the lines that money saved from the defence budget could be more usefully directed towards overseas aid programmes, social services, education, health and so on. Those are, of course, to some people very seductive arguments. But I suggest that they ignore the obvious fact that, without strong and secure defences, we might well lose the ability to have any of those other desirable things at all. Edmund Burke said at the time of the French Revolution:
- "The cheap defence of nations is gone".
That statement has even more truth in it now than it had when it was made two centuries ago. In the age of advanced military technology there is no such thing as defence on the cheap. As the noble Lord, Lord Vivian, rightly said, we have to pay a premium to ensure our continued security. I hope very much that the Government will continue to resist any facile arguments against paying it.
There will also be, as I have suggested, pressures of a different kind. One which has had some currency recently is the campaign for what is called "a nuclear-free world". The arguments about this have been fully deployed in your Lordships' House on a recent occasion and I shall not rehearse them in detail again. I shall only say that there are two principal weaknesses in the nuclear-free world theory: first, that it is impossible to erase the knowledge of how to make nuclear weapons--people will make them and use them if they think it is in their interests to do so--and, secondly, that, even if we could remove and erase the memory of nuclear weapons altogether, their removal from the military equation would leave us all at the mercy of any country which was prepared to spend a large proportion of its national resources on conventional forces. I express the hope that the Government will stand firm against this kind of thinking which seems to be based on faith in the possibility of rerationalising the whole of military strategy and military theory in the absence of a nuclear weapon.
The Government will find--they probably have already found--convincing arguments against that way of thinking in a recent study entitled Thinking About Nuclear Weapons by Sir Michael Quinlan, a former Permanent Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence. I am sure that the Government have already studied that document with great care. But I suggest that it should be read by anyone seriously interested in the debate about nuclear deterrence and disarmament. For any noble Lord who would like to know, it is published by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies. It is a penetrating study by one of the leading experts on nuclear weapons in this country.
In parenthesis, this leads me to comment, outside the nuclear sphere, on the dangers of what might be called single weapon disarmament--the habit some campaigning groups have of seizing on a certain weapon and demanding its removal, although that removal would in itself change the whole nature of warfare. One of the more recent examples of this has been the campaign, referred to by the Minister, to abolish landmines as military weapons. Of course, we are all horrified by television pictures of people with limbs blown off and other terrible injuries caused by anti-personnel mines which have not been properly cleared from old battlefields. But all weapons of war are, in the final analysis, horrible. However, military planners have to bear in mind that there may be occasions when the security of a defensive force faced by overwhelmingly superior attackers could most effectively be protected by minefields. We must bear that in mind in confronting this kind of campaign. The real problem about mines lies in the need to have fully
effective systems of clearance rather than the simple prohibition of mines as a weapon, which prohibition will be totally ignored if some country decides that it is in its best interests to manufacture and deploy them in time of war.However, to return to the nuclear dimension, even those who do not subscribe fully to the nuclear-free world theory will be pressing the Government--and they have already begun--to reduce the number of missiles or warheads in our Trident force on the basis that they are more than we need to provide a "minimum deterrent". Many people who use that phrase have not the faintest idea what it means. The provision of a minimum nuclear deterrent is based on a whole range of interlocking strategic and technical criteria. It is very complicated. They include the ability of a potential enemy to provide effective defence against ballistic missiles--and let us bear in mind that ballistic missile defences are still allowed under international agreements. We should also bear in mind--and it is often forgotten in this argument: Sir Michael Quinlan has recently pointed it out again--that the Trident missiles on our new deterrent force will not have the aids to penetration of ballistic missile defences that the old Chevaline version of the Polaris missiles had. Trident will not be able to penetrate sophisticated ballistic missile defences to the same extent.
The number of submarines, missiles and warheads in the Trident force was very carefully calculated when the force was planned and in my opinion, as the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, so eloquently said, it would be foolish to start tinkering with it now. In this context I was especially interested, and a little concerned, to see a report in The Times last Tuesday that the Secretary of State for Defence has said that the defence review would,
- "reassess Britain's nuclear posture with a view to seeing what is the appropriate level of credible minimum deterrence".
When the Minister comes to reply, I hope that he can assure us categorically that that will be done on the basis of a careful assessment of all the military criteria and the strategic implications, and that it will not be distorted by pressures from the Treasury or elsewhere which do not take account of all possible current and future security requirements.
There will, of course, be pressures for change in non-nuclear defence policies as well. There is much talk about providing a common infrastructure for the Armed Forces to eliminate wasteful duplication of administrative and support elements of the Armed Forces. All that, of course, is eminently desirable and no one could possibly argue against it. But I fear that there is a danger that it may lead--it has already begun in some comments--to ideas about the merging of the three services into one single service: the process which used to be called, when I was in the Army, "The Purple Solution". This experiment, as we know, has been tried in one or two other countries without very much success and I hope that the Government will bear in the mind that the morale of the Armed Forces has been placed under enough strain already by recent reorganisations,
redeployments and restructurings and that an attempt to make a radical change of this nature in the organisation of our Armed Forces might have disastrous results.Pressures of that kind, and others, might not seem to matter so much if we lived in a safe and predictable world. But, as other noble Lords have said, we do not. Indeed, I would argue that the world is less safe now than it was in the relatively simple scenario of the east-west confrontation. It would perhaps be going a little too far to say, as Thomas Hobbes wrote in his famous Leviathan that,
- "the condition of man...is a condition of war of everyone against everyone else".
But it is true that we have certainly not found a way--nor do we seem likely to do so--of eliminating war as an element in the conduct of international relations. The possibility of conflict in which we might well be involved is as great today as it has ever been. In the interests of time, I shall not rehearse the familiar litany of possible threats--external ambitions in Russia; the dangers of Chinese expansionism; the threat of a critical breakdown in Arab/Israel relations; the unpredictable nature of Middle East regimes like Iraq, Iran and Libya; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them and international terrorism. I could go on almost endlessly. Any government which neglected their defence arrangements in such an environment would be placing the nation at great risk, and I do not believe that this Government will take that risk.
In conclusion, the need for well-organised, well-equipped and well-motivated Armed Forces for war fighting is further underlined by the recently declared intention of the Secretary of State for Defence, mentioned by the Minister, to use the Armed Forces in what has been described as a network of military-to-military contacts to disarm some of the Cold War perceptions that have grown up over the past 50 years. This is a most constructive concept and we must wish the Government every success in achieving it. When people talk about the horrors of war they sometimes forget that it is soldiers, sailors and airmen, especially those with experience of combat, who understand most clearly what those horrors of war really are and who are most determined to ensure that, if possible, they are never exposed to them again.
I repeat that in my view the Government are to be commended on the constructive and resolute approach they have so far taken towards the defence of the realm. We shall await with much interest, and with sharpened knives, the results of the current defence review, while expressing the hope that it will not give rise to any further instability in the defence establishment.
The Minister of all people will not need reminding that dangers come not only from malevolent and aggressive forces from without, but also from well-meaning but misguided friends within. I hope that the Government will be as firm in confronting them as they appear to be in their determination to confront the external threat.
5.26 p.m.
Lord Westbury: My Lords, although my noble friends Lord Campbell of Alloway and Lord Trefgarne have already spoken about Guardsmen Wright and Fisher, the late Lord Shinwell said that one had to say things three times in this House before anyone listened. So here we go for the third time.
May I now quickly say what a scandalous and sad affair for the whole of the Army is the extra year's prison sentence recommended by the Northern Ireland Life Sentence Review Board. These two guardsmen have already served five years for doing their duty for Queen and country, as laid down in the yellow card. It has now been recommended that they should be had up for murder and given an extra year. That is intolerable.
These men are roughly 20 years old, so that they will serve nearly a quarter of their lives in prison. I know that the final decision for their release is in the power of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. I know how tricky is the situation in Northern Ireland at the moment. I have a sneaking feeling that this matter has become a political football. If the lives of young men serving their country can be treated like this, I believe that it is not a great encouragement to young men to join the Armed Forces. Therefore, may I plead for their immediate release on humanitarian grounds?
5.27 p.m.
Lord Judd: My Lords, at the outset I must declare an interest. For most of my life I have worked, and still work, both professionally and voluntarily, with NGOs and humanitarian agencies closely concerned with international security matters. These include organisations like Saferworld, International Alert and Oxfam.
In recent weeks we have seen a firm stand by leaders of the armed services themselves, together with their Ministers, on the imperative for the services to represent, in terms of gender and ethnic composition, the society they exist to defend. My noble friend underlined that again today. I hope that this House will unequivocally declare its support for all that is at last being done in an attempt to ensure that ethnic minorities and women are enabled to play the full part in the work of the Navy, Royal Marines, Army and Royal Air Force that they should have been able to play long ago.
Obviously, the House is keenly looking forward to the outcome of what we have repeatedly been assured will be a foreign policy-led strategic defence review. The Government are to be congratulated not only on the decision to break free of the Treasury short-term expediency, which had dominated defence for too long under the previous government--expediency which played havoc with morale and the ability to plan ahead with confidence--but they also deserve congratulations on the open way they have gone about the task, positively inviting comment and ideas from a wide constituency of interest and expertise. It is fervently to be hoped that what emerges will command widespread support and will convincingly set the context for a long time ahead.
I hope that the results will demonstrate that the New Labour Government have had the self-confidence and courage to take a clean sheet of paper, look at the real security issues and threats facing the UK now and into the 21st century and then design a defence and security policy which meets the challenges ahead. The hard decisions will be how to reshape what we have now to what we need for the future. The discipline must surely be at all costs to avoid an overarching commitment to what we currently have. The Government owe it to the service men and women, the civilians in defence, the defence industry and, indeed, the taxpayers to come up with a relevant, viable policy for the world as it is going to be--not a rationalisation for a modified status quo.
As this, I hope, radical review takes place, there will be an ideal opportunity to re-examine and, if need be, redefine what we understand security to be in the post-Cold War, highly interdependent world in which we live. How does what we have traditionally seen as defence knit coherently together with our global economic, social, migration, development, trade, environment and other policies which are all central to building a stable, secure future for humanity? Indeed, I hope that there has been the closest possible constant co-operation between those working on the defence review and those working on the White Paper on Overseas Development. The relationship is obvious. I hope that my noble friend the Minister can reassure us on this. It would be sad if New Labour had missed this opportunity to break out of the institutionalised mould and to think imaginatively and laterally.
We are one of only five permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations. What does the responsibility of that leadership position--if we are to retain it--demand of us? The Security Council is about global stewardship or it is about nothing. If we still aspire to a special place on the council, what should we be contributing towards global stewardship?
I know that the Polly Toynbees of the media are arguing for us in Britain to reduce our contribution to collective security and scale down the level of our international commitments. Their thesis seems to be that the UK suffers from delusions of imperial grandeur, that the size of the defence budget is vastly in excess of what is necessary and that billions of pounds should be redirected into health, education and other public services. The noble Lord, Lord Chalfont, referred to that. At a time when public services are desperate for additional resources, there is a superficial appeal in all this. But the UK cannot isolate itself from the global realities of which we are inescapably a part. It is difficult to think of a nation which has a greater interest in a stable, secure world than ours or, conversely, which is more vulnerable to the consequences of instability, with all its unpredictability, insecurity and violent upheaval.
Of course, we cannot police the world on our own. Such a notion is as ridiculous as it is dangerous. But that does not mean the world does not have to be policed. The challenge is how this is to be done successfully on a co-operative international basis and how we play our convincing part in it. Just as sane Members of this House, on all sides, recognise that
strategic aspects of economic, social and environmental reality have become globalised, and that to safeguard the people of our islands we must therefore be in there batting in the EU, G7 and the rest, so the globalisation of the strategic aspects of security demand that we must be in there batting as part of NATO and the UN in order to safeguard our own people no less than anyone else; and if we are to bat effectively, we have to will the means to meet our part of the responsibility.My noble friend was right to remind us that the review will naturally have to address the specific security issues which still have a unique significance for the UK: Northern Ireland; surveillance of the air and waters surrounding the UK; the external defence of the 13 remaining dependent territories, including the Falkland Islands; our obligations to British nationals living in areas of political instability or at risk from environmental disasters; and support for the civil power in combating terrorism.
But what of the wider challenges? These must include the stability of the European continent and adjacent territories--and this means not only adapting and expanding NATO and getting the relationship right between NATO and WEU, OSCE and the UN but, vitally, getting right the essential co-operation between NATO and Russia and between NATO and the non-member central and east European states. We must be vigilant not to provoke the very dangers of nationalism and hostility which NATO is there to contain.
Then there is the need for conflict prevention, pre-emptive diplomacy, peacekeeping, peace support and control of the arms trade across the world. For all of these, our contribution to the revitalisation of a credible UN will be indispensable; and the Government's determination to secure a code of conduct for the arms trade during their presidency of the EU will be of potentially far-reaching significance. But it must be a code which means something and which guarantees far greater scrutiny and transparency--not one carefully crafted to make no real difference. The dangers meanwhile of the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction are disturbing. Effective international action is urgently required. The non-proliferation treaty is crucially important. It needs to be reinforced. We must therefore take care in the presentation of our own nuclear deterrent policy lest, as perceived by others, it could give grounds to those who wish to undermine the NPT.
International law is highly relevant to security. When international law is violated with virtual impunity, as happened in Rwanda with respect to the Genocide Convention, there is a general weakening in its authority. The administration and application of international law must be invigorated. The importance of consistency cannot be over-emphasised. However, the process must not be allowed to become selective or simply another tool for the mighty. The proposed international criminal court, if--but only if--even-handed and consistent in its work, could make a powerful contribution to international security.
The UK has long had a key interest in helping to underwrite a global order in which trade and investment flows can proceed safely without disruption from violent conflict or political instability. But we also have a key interest in promoting fairer trade in the cause of more inclusive and sustainable development of the world's poorer countries, not just because it is ethically right--as it is--but because this will underpin greater world stability. It cannot be coincidental that 15 of the 20 poorest countries in the world have experienced significant violent conflict in the past 15 years. By far and away the majority of the world's contemporary armed conflicts are taking place within the less developed countries of the world.
Climate change, ozone depletion, damage to biodiversity are not so-called "soft security" threats. They are ominously real. We could yet look rather silly if, in an over-concentration on traditionally understood concepts of security, we fail to register the damage and destruction which is threatened by mismanagement of the environment. I hope that the Strategic Defence Review will look at this and consider what contribution might be made by the armed services to peaceful solutions before it is too late. And on our own doorstep, as we agonise about the pressures on our immediate environment, not least on land and open space, I hope that the review will seize the issue of the urgent need for an environmentally friendly comprehensive policy on the management and disposal of defence land and on the general use of land by the services.
It is also essential for the review to consider carefully the escalating number of refugees and displaced people--perhaps as many as 100 million by the turn of the century--and to analyse the implications of this huge pool of human misery for world stability, not to mention its close relationship to international terrorism; and we must remember that there will be increasing numbers of environmental refugees as well. I believe that the refugee crisis and its destabilising implications underline dramatically why concern for human rights and an ethical foreign policy is not, as the blinkered cynics would sometimes have it, nonsense--I have heard more crude descriptions than that--but basic to security. Oppression breeds insecurity. We forget that at our peril.
I believe that the Government have embarked on a brave course in this Strategic Defence Review. They have opened themselves to unprecedented public scrutiny and debate. I wish them well, but I believe that if they are to succeed in their endeavour, the issue of resources cannot be escaped. If we will the ends, we shall also have to will the means.
5.40 p.m.
Baroness Park of Monmouth: My Lords, I feel diffident indeed speaking after two such distinguished maiden speakers. The difficulty about this debate is that while we are addressing our remarks to the Minister (whose heart I believe to be distinctly in the right place) and while the Secretary of State has said all the right things about the UK's commitment to NATO, the Atlantic alliance, the Eurofighter and Trident, together with small but significant gestures such as the new
approach to the Gulf War and the investment of £1.1 million in reviewing records, alas the real arbiter of the future of defence in this country is the Treasury, renowned for its short-termism ever since the days of the 10-year rule, and, to a lesser but still perhaps significant extent, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because of the almost inevitable conflict in some areas between the ethical foreign policy and the procurement aspects of defence.Normally, I would have spoken about the Russian threat. Today I shall say only, once more, that Russia remains a potential threat to peace and stability in Europe and has not gone away and that NATO, the successful and non-aggressive preserver of peace for over 50 years, must be maintained at the strength necessary to provide a credible deterrent. This means that we must not allow our financial support of NATO and the ARCC to be cut. NATO has also acquired a very positive and constructive role not as a wall but as a bridge builder and force to reduce tension through the Partnership for Peace and the founding Act. However much I still believe that it allows the Trojans within the wall, it can be a first stage in the new relationship with Russia provided it is not allowed to weaken NATO's solidarity and it is accepted that no strategic review can ignore Russia's future capacity to act as a powerful military power and a potential threat to stability.
There is, however, one immediately relevant aspect of Russian activity. I refer to Russia's success in selling arms and equipment to the Far East and its near monopoly in India. I refer to its sales of military aircraft, and now possibly missiles, to Indonesia; sales of aircraft and submarines to China; sales of aircraft to Malaysia, and so on. Thus, the Russians are able to retain their defence industry--a major employer and scientific innovator--achieve growing political influence in the area and, not least, ensure that they are able to supply their own forces with the latest modern armaments. We, too, need to support and encourage our defence industry for the same reason. As strongly indicated in the other place this week, we cannot contemplate being dependent on the French for our ordnance in time of war, as we infamously were dependent on the Belgians during the Gulf War for ammunition because we had abandoned our manufacturing capacity. The trade union briefing on the Royal Ordnance issue was quoted in the other place on 28th October at column 765:
- "Unless Government intervenes to protect strategic capacity ... Britain will, in future, have to depend on France to meet the needs of our armed forces, including in times of crisis".
What comes down to it, the Government have a duty, as they have accepted, to protect the realm. The Minister needs no lectures on this. I say it for the Treasury's ears, not his. Meanwhile, a way must be found to prevent the application of the ethical principle as defined by this Government from emasculating the essential, inescapable commitment to equip our Armed Forces, themselves a most important part of our foreign policy, as they will need to be equipped in the 21st century if they are to keep the peace, not least in the vital area of Northern Ireland.
There is already in existence a formidable machinery of departmental checks and balances to ensure that all arms orders are fully vetted. That has been in place for some time. Since it is obviously right to save money where we can, for the Treasury's ears it is worth quoting the Ministry of Defence performance report. That report states that during 1996-7 defence exports saved £300 million for the defence budget through lower procurement costs resulting from the spreading of company fixed overheads.
There are other issues that I should like to address. One is trust; another is accountability, an example of a serious failure in that area emerging in the further memorandum on the Gulf War. A third issue is full recognition that the men and women of the armed services are fully entitled, like other citizens, to certain basic rights and privileges, notably a home, a decent quality of life and, among other things, access to medical services. I believe that part of the reason for the serious shortfall in recruitment is that the services are perceived by those who know little or nothing about them, and are judged by the media, as having a most uncertain future; as lacking status and relevance in society, as they understand it; and as survivors and a manifestation of outdated imperial privilege. That at least some in government share the last perception may account for the almost invisible profile of the military at the Commonwealth Conference. That was a serious miscalculation in the eyes of most Commonwealth countries who have had long and proud traditions of service under the Crown.
I need not expand the point about the apparently uncertain future. We already spend a lower percentage of GDP (2.7 per cent.) than Greece or Turkey, let alone the US; less per capita than Norway, France, Denmark or the US; and less in actual expenditure than the US, France or Germany. Before Parliament returned from the Recess it was hardly reassuring to read in the Sunday Times of 12th October that the Treasury,
- "intended to force the MoD into a huge disposal of land and other assets in order to finance its future equipment spending".
- "land acquired for firing ranges and other military purposes but no longer used".
Has the Treasury already decided that the Armed Forces can neither train at home nor operate overseas, or are they to be limited to clearing up rubbish in inner cities? The general fear probably within the services but certainly among those who still believe in their importance and value is that, while this review which is now set to last for a year proceeds in good faith, all the props will be quietly kicked away by unilateral Treasury action and never discussed on the Floor of the House. Its distinguishing feature will be short-termism, as displayed by that department over the married quarters estate. The Minister will be aware that the National Audit Office has since confirmed the view, cogently
argued in this House, that, as the MoD's own figures showed, taxpayers would have been significantly better off if that sale had been halted. As it is, the new owner will make large profits while the MoD pays rents to be reviewed every five years and is responsible for maintenance. I raise this because it is an unhappy example of the short termism of the Treasury and its power to drive defence policy purely to save money.It seems to me that the Defence Secondary Care Agency's only positive achievement is a substantial saving for the defence budget, as it proudly claims, at a terrible cost to the delivery of medical services to the forces. The noble Lord's right honourable friend in the other place has called for an urgent review of the position. I fervently hope that this will lead to the restoration of separate service medical care, as outlined by my noble friend Lord Vivian. In housing and in medical care the services have had a very bad deal. Part of the process of restoring trust will be to remedy that as soon as possible.
That brings me to another related concern. I see from the admirable MoD performance report that yet another agency, the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency, was launched on 1st April of this year as a follow-up to the Bett Report. I quote from paragraph 402:
- "The Agency has two primary objectives: first, to provide a modern and efficient pay and pensions service for everyone in the Armed Forces, be they full time, part time or reservist; and, second, to deliver reliable and responsive personnel data and administrative support, central policy staff and personnel managers in each service".
- "It is planned to appoint a private sector partner under the Government's Private Finance Initiative to provide these services on the Agency's behalf. The partner will be required to develop tri-service systems for pay, pensions and personnel administration, and to shoulder much of the business risk involved".
The House will not have forgotten the view of the Public Accounts Committee of the operations of the Student Loan Company in 1994-95 where its failure was largely attributed by the committee to inadequate consultation and inadequate contingency plans. It commented that the subsequent proposal for a twin-track public/private loan scheme would require extremely careful departmental oversight. Will the next step be an RAS-style sale? I hope that excessive contractualisation, too many redundancies and the civilianisation of some 1,000 military posts has not left the services without the professional skills they badly need, especially in the field of information technology. I hope they will be able effectively to oversee these outside advisers and partners who will not understand either the culture or the needs of the services.
I am not encouraged by what I read about the complex contracts required to implement Project CAPITAL. That is the new system for resource accounting and budgeting in the MoD. I feel even greater concern over this. I hope that the MoD will not
have to spend more time on accounting for money than on its central purpose of defence. No successful business allows its policy to be driven by accountants.Reverting, finally, to my point about the difficulties of recruitment, I have noted with great pleasure the many measures being taken under the performance report. I believe it is of the greatest importance to convince potential recruits that on joining the services they are entering a modern environment, full of high-tech skills and professionalism, where they will find exciting challenges and go away with considerably enhanced prospects in the world of work outside.
The Government, therefore, have to be seen by their deeds to regard the Armed Forces as a major national asset worth boasting about as part of the future as well as the glorious past and, above all, as something worth investing in.
5.52 p.m.
The Earl of Effingham: My Lords, I too should like to thank the noble Minister for introducing this very important subject in your Lordships' Chamber. I also reiterate the remarks of earlier speakers in saying how very much I enjoyed listening to the two maiden speeches.
The Government of this country has for many years had limited choice as to how they arranged Britain's defences. There was a clear and certain threat which had to be met and an absolute and binding commitment to NATO which required us to maintain certain forces in particular locations.
Today the scenario is very different. There is not a direct threat to Britain, or in relation to the question of our aid to one of our NATO partners. It follows that we are no longer constrained to the same extent by the needs of defending our homeland and meeting the stringent defence requirements of NATO. The Government therefore have some choice about which of Britain's interests it seeks to promote or protect, how to meet our obligations and commitments around the world, and whether to become involved in any disputes at all.
There are a number of people in this country who believe that since the demise of the Soviet Union there is no threat for our Armed Forces to meet and that without the threat we once faced from the Soviet Union the needs of defence can safely take second or third place behind the many other worthy claims on taxpayers' money. To accept that scenario is both wrong and dangerously misleading. The fact is, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, we followed a continental strategy. We relied upon relatively static, mainly land based, forces to meet the threat we saw coming from one particular source. Such certainties have gone and with it the logic of relying on such forces. I firmly believe that the Strategic Defence Review has the potential to undertake an important role here. It must become the watermark in the transformation of the services into expeditionary forces.