Army may lose out to better-paid jobs
Home Secretary admits keeping military at full strength is ‘ambitious’ amid economic upturn
THE Army is facing a recruitment crisis because Britain’s improving economy means people can get better-paid jobs elsewhere, the Home Secretary has suggested.
Amber Rudd admitted that keeping the size of the Army at full strength might pose a problem.
She told the national security strategy committee yesterday: “We know that the recruitment for reserves and maintaining the Army at 82,000 is an ambitious target.
“That is one of my primary concerns. The Defence Secretary is completely aware of that. We have plans of what to do about that.”
She added: “It’s not obvious necessarily how to attract the best people. We have put in place various initiatives like Help to Buy for the Armed Forces so they can acquire property.
“More family-friendly regulations – that is one area where we do have concerns, but we are taking action.”
Ms Rudd also said that Britain would try to remain in European Union security organisations and systems such as Europol – the EU’s law enforcement agency – and the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) after Brexit.
She said maintaining security co-operation at the same level after leaving the EU would be a “desirable outcome” of exit negotiations, which Theresa May is due to trigger before the end of the month.
Ms Rudd said interior ministers from across the EU wanted Britain to continue to participate, adding: “We have to find a way of making sure that we can deliver that and I certainly hope without any diminution.”
Senior figures in policing and counter-terrorism have highlighted the role played in their work by the European Arrest Warrant, the second-gen- eration Schengen Information System – a database of real-time alerts – the European Criminal Records Information System and Europol.
Ms Rudd said ongoing participation with those bodies would be a “priority” as data-sharing across Europe was “absolutely key” to public safety.
“These elements of our security that we have access to through the European Union do keep us much safer and we hope to negotiate with the European Union a new agreement whereby we have access to those.
“And they benefit from our ongoing participation as well as us having access to them.”
Asked by the justice committee chairman Bob Neill if this meant main- taining participation and access with “no diminution”, she said: “That would be a desirable outcome.
“We do benefit from having access to these different initiatives. In fact, the UK has led on setting them up and on persuading other European Union members to participate in them.”
Ms Rudd also acknowledged that remaining a part of EU security co-operation would mean the UK signing up to equivalent regulations and laws on data.
“It is recognised as a key priority. Making sure that we have a system whereby we can all transfer data under a regulation which is satisfactory to different countries is going to be critical to any final agreement,” she said.