Armed Forces: Family Life

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jolly]

I can indeed.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, would the Minister not agree that one of the main reasons for pressure on servicemen and service families is the ever increasing rate of rotation in ships or whatever, because we have too few ships and there are huge pressures on manpower anyway? Some easement in resources to allow more money for recruiting and retention, plus some more ships and aircraft, might help dramatically.

[Baroness Jolly]

More ships and aircraft are not in my brief, but families are. Long operational deployments attract additional leave, allowing servicepeople to spend time with their families.