A Care Quality Commission review of the Defence Medical Services (DMS) has found high standards of medical care for frontline service personnel, with some concerns about aspects of non-frontline care.
Lord Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 Olympic organising committee (Locog), said today that he "could not rule out" asking for the current deployment of 17,000 to be increased. According to the Daily Telegraph, the MoD (unsurprisingly) has contingency plans for additional deployment. Senior military officers told the newspaper this week that they expect "up to 20,000" service personnel to be involved in the Olympic operation.
G4S, the private security firm which has an estimated £284 million contract for the provision of guards for the Olympic Games [2012], says in a statement tonight that it is "grateful for the additional military support involving at least 3,500 armed forces personnel". It adds that "We do not underestimate the impact on the military personnel and their families and express our appreciation to them."
Across BFG the countdown to drawdown has left soldiers and families facing an uncertain future, as the issue of rebasing is considered by the Ministry of Defence.
Personnel living in Germany are being urged to exercise caution when taking out loans with German based agents.
With the Army 2020 announcement now likely to be made in Parliament this week, what line has BAFF been taking? The BAFF Chairman has given interviews on the subject in recent weeks. He has provided this summary of what he has been saying so far:
Personnel who wish to appeal have 30 calendar days (not working days) from the date of their notification letter to submit a written appeal through the appropriate channels. BAFF understands that:
The long-overdue memorial to the young men of the wartime Bomber Command will be dedicated and unveiled in the heart of London at midday on Thursday, 28th June, 2012.
BAFF members on and off parade enjoyed a historic Queen's Birthday Parade in Her Majesty's 60th Jubilee Year.
The speeches to the RUSI Land Warfare Conference by the Secretary of State, CGS, and the Army 2020 Team Leader, along with the slides from Gen Carter's presentation, are now available to logged-in users following this link:
Two and a half years ahead of the Scottish constitutional referendum which is expected to be held in the autumn of 2014, the British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) is already working on the implications for service personnel.
The membership of the British Armed Forces Federation is drawn from personnel from all three services from across the United Kingdom, as well as those from elsewhere in the Commonwealth. (No referendum vote for citizens of overseas Commonwealth countries, except Malta and Cyprus.)
The Coalition Government introduced a new Electoral and Administration Bill in the House of Commons in May 2012. The Bill provides for the introduction of individual electoral registration in Great Britain, and a number of changes relating to electoral administration and the conduct of elections.
As we see it, the main benefit to service voters is that the timetable for UK parliamentary elections would be extended from 17 to 25 days.
BAFF was represented at the Presidium meeting of the European Organisation of Military Associations - EUROMIL - held at Limerick, Ireland on 27-28 April, 2012.
The two-person BAFF delegation included the Federation's Chairman, Douglas Young. He renewed acquaintance with colleagues from (amongst other countries) Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Montenegro, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as EUROMIL Board members and staff from the small EUROMIL headquarters in Brussels.
The Scottish Government's consultation on arrangements for the independence referendum closes 11 May 2012. Anyone can take part. You can complete the consultation online and you can even take part anonymously, although we do not recommend this.
The separate consultation by the UK Government's Scotland Office has already taken place. BAFF took part in that consultation, and our views were quoted in the UK Government's published summary of the consultation results.
Given that beyond question there are service personnel on both sides of the referendum debate, our focus as with previous elections is to encourage eligible members of the armed forces community to make sure they are properly registered, and then make their own voting choice with confidence that their votes will count.
More than 8000 personnel from Commonwealth countries (other than the UK) serve in the Royal Navy, Brish Army and Royal Air Force.
Among them are 2,200 Fijians who make up one of the largest groups of Commonwealth service men and women to serve in Her Majesty's British Armed Forces.
Ex-servicemen who had been exposed to radiation in British nuclear weapons tests have lost their Supreme Court bid to launch negligence claims against the Ministry of Defence. BBC News reports that:
As we predicted a few days ago, the Armed Forces Pay Review Body's 2012 report has now been published. The Government has accepted its recommendations on armed forces pay and charges for 2012-2013.
The report has been published on the Office of Manpower Economics' website but, as members have reported difficulty in opening the document, we are meantime making a copy available to logged-in registered users here:
The British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) has responded to the UK Government Scotland Office consultation on arrangements for a referendum on Scotland's constitutional future. The Federation is also responding to the separate consultation by the Scottish Government.
UPDATE: Following the publication of the results of the UK Government's consultation, the BAFF response to that consultation is now available at the link below without the need to log in. The UK's Government's summary includes a quote from the BAFF submission.
The Ministry of Defence has denied the report in today's Times that married soldiers living in Army accommodation will be forced out of their homes under "cost-cutting proposals" being considered by the MOD, as part of the New Employment Model (NEM). The Ministry does not, however, appear to deny that reducing the entitlement to service housing is one of the "range of options" under consideration.
The Labour Party has launched a Shadow Defence Review. BritishForcesNews reports (22 Feb) that:
A story in the Guardian claims that with the MoD planning to sell off its 178-acre vehicle complex at Ashchurch in Gloucestershire, in order to raise money, one of the options under consideration is to move some tanks and other armoured vehicles to storage in Germany.
The UK is in the process of withdrawing thousands of troops from Germany, at the same time as thousands of military vehicles could be heading in the opposite direction.
A BFBS news report says that thousands of members of the Armed Forces could lose their chance to vote this year if they don't fill out a voter registration form.
Every year service personnel across the UK and away on deployment can't have their say in elections because they don't register to vote in time.
BAFF reported last week that 45% of armed forces voters who think they are registered are not properly registered after all.
The Telegraph says that "senior Army sources" have spoken of their increasing concern that the Territorial Army is "not fit for purpose" and will leave Britain's ability to defend itself hamstrung:
In a scathing criticism of defence cuts the Public Account Committee said delaying the building of two aircraft carriers and the Astute class submarines had already increased the Ministry of Defence's costs by more than £5 billion in the long term. A report in the Daily Telegraph continues:
According to the Army Rumour Service website 'ARRSE', there is a plan for a small expedition to Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) in June 2012 to reinstall two memorials to soldiers of the Royal Gloucestershire Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (RGBW) who died during the Regiment's first operational tour in 1994, when Battalion Tactical HQ, A and B Companies were based in Gorazde. Link to full details at the bottom of this article.
Erskine, the famous Scottish veterans' charity, is reportedly having to cut back on part of its commercial operation which provides valuable wotk for veterans. The Daily Record reports that:
Dr Rhonda Cornum was one of the first generation of women to serve on the frontline in the first Gulf War. Captured by the Iraqi army, it was her ability to withstand that experience that convinced her of the importance of teaching resilience to today's serving soldiers. Less than a week after retiring as assistant US Surgeon General, she's been speaking about resilience training in London. She told Forces News that when she was shot down as part of a rescue mission in 1991 she was certain she was going to die. ForcesNews reports (07 Feb):
Three quarters of service personnel believe that they are registered to vote but according to the latest research, 44% of those are not properly registered after all.
The Mirror has a story about an infantry soldier who was medically discharged from the Army for service-induced hearing loss. He has received other benefits to which he was entitled, but now his application for compensation under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme has been refused by the SPVA - because the service-induced hearing loss is assessed at less than 20%.
When the 20% threshold was imposed by the Ministry of Defence in the 1990's under the old War Pensions scheme, the justification was that compensation should be targeted more at those with the most serious injuries. The new Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS), for injuries on or after 6 April 2005, is thankfully more generous than the old scheme but the 20% hearing loss theshold remains.
The ruling remains controversial, because 20% hearing loss is enough to get in the way of your work, domestic and social activities on every single day of life.
But actually discharging a soldier for service-induced hearing loss, and then dismissing his injury claim as in effect trivial, is straight from the pages of Catch-22. It's time to have another look at this ruling.