Nearly a quarter of soldiers and officers in the regular army cannot engage in combat without any restrictions
Good morning. With almost no live politics news, Christmas Eve isn’t the best day for a politics live blog, but Christmas is also the season for presents – offerings prepared and wrapped in advance – and there are some good ones around this morning.
At the Guardian, we are splashing on Anna Isaac’s story saying Thames Water intentionally diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental clean-ups towards other costs including bonuses and dividend.
The Guardian: Revealed: Thames Water diverted
‘clean-up’ cash to help pay bonuses #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/vmkVDajr6I
And, at the Times, Larisa Brown, the defence editor, has a story saying that one fifth of members of the armed forces cannot be relied upon to fight for health reasons. She reports.
More than 10,000 serving sailors, soldiers and aviators cannot go to war because they have been declared medically unfit, it can be revealed.
In addition, nearly 15,000 troops can only be deployed if the mission meets certain criteria, such as the weather is not too hot or too cold and they are not exposed to noise …
Nearly a quarter of soldiers and officers in the regular army cannot engage in combat without any restrictions and nearly 3,000 sailors are deemed unfit to go to sea under any circumstances.
In the case of the army, 16,335 soldiers are either “medically not deployable” or “medically limited deployable”, out of a total of 71,340 personnel, amounting to 23 per cent of all troops.
The Times: Fifth of the forces can’t be relied on to fight #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/OObYoS7yrU
The figures come from a parliamentary written answer from Al Carns, the veterans minister to a question posed by Mark Francois, a shadow defence minister.
In its version of the story, PA Media reports:
Service personnel with medical conditions or fitness issues which affect their ability to perform their duties will generally be referred to a medical board for a medical examination and review of their medical grading.
They may be downgraded, to allow for treatment, recovery and rehabilitation and deployability status can be awarded on a temporary or permanent basis.
Deployable is defined as personnel who are able to deploy on operations. Some personnel may have medical limitations which restrict the type or location of operation they can be deployed on.
MoD statistics from April 2024 showed the army fell below its target size for the first time since it was set, meaning all three service branches are currently below target: the Army by 1%, the RN/RM by 5% and the RAF by 10%.
Overall, the UK armed forces were 5,440 personnel (1%) below target.
Commenting on the figures, the Ministry of Defence said:
The vast majority of our service personnel – around 90% – are deployable at any point, with most of the remaining members of our Armed Forces employed in wider military roles. We are committed to providing world-class medical treatment to ensure personnel can return to duty where possible, or to support their transition to civilian life.
I will be wrapping up other bits of pre-Christmas politics news, in so far as there is any, as the morning goes on. But we will be closing around lunchtime.
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