Armed forces are woefully short of skills, report warns
A REPORT has warned the UK’S armed forces are “woefully” short of the skills and manpower needed to face modern threats to national security.
The National Audit Office (NAO) found significant shortages of personnel with skills in critical areas which are not expected to be filled before 2023.
More than 100 pinch-points, including engineering, intelligence, logistics, pilots, communications and medical services, have been identified by the NAO, who also found that 8,200 posts need to be filled to bring numbers up to their required level – the biggest gap in a decade.
The office warned that problems are only likely as the Ministry of Defence will also have to train troops with new specialist technical and digital skills to respond to the emerging threats of modern warfare such as cyberattacks.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: “Ensuring the Armed Forces have the right number of skilled personnel in place is not a new challenge, but given the complexity and development of new, modern-world threats, it is a challenge that will only continue to grow.”
The shortfalls result mainly from recruitment and retention problems. In 2016-17 targets for the number of regulars recruited into the Armed Forces were missed by almost one-quarter, while the percentage of those leaving has increased from 3.8 per cent annually in March 2010 to 5.6% in December last year.
In some trades and ranks, this percentage is several times higher than average, and the MOD has tried to bring in a substantial programme of changes to support service personnel, such as rewarding people for their skills through a new pay model or flexible working.
However, the NAO found that the situation has yet to improve.
Meg Hillier, Labour MP and chairwoman of the committee of public accounts, said: “In these uncertain times, it is more critical than ever that Britain has a well-staffed Armed Forces with the technical know-how to handle threats to national security.
“But the NAO report shows that the Armed Forces are woefully below compliment, especially in crucial areas like intelligence and engineering.
“Without more innovative methods to attract and retain staff, the UK risks continuing with big gaps in capability and overstretching already hard-working and crucial service personnel.”
An spokesman for the MOD said: “Recruiting and retaining talent is one of our top priorities and we have a range of schemes, including retention pay for and direct entry into specialist trades and flexible working to make sure we attract and keep the skilled personnel we need.
“The military has enough personnel to meet all its operational requirements,on 25 operations in 30 countries.
“In the past year we have recruited over 13,000 people.”