Tom Gordon
Main Page: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)Department Debates - View all Tom Gordon's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(2 days, 10 hours ago)
Commons ChamberIt is a huge honour to be here, and I am very honoured.
We inherited a crisis in recruitment and retention. This Government are renewing the contract with those who serve by giving them the largest pay rise in 20 years, allocating an extra £1.5 billion to fix forces housing and establishing a new Armed Forces Commissioner. It is clear that our actions are having an effect. On recruitment, inflow continues to improve and is up 13% year on year, and applications to join the armed forces and intakes to basic training both remain high. On retention, morale had been falling year on year with more people leaving than joining, but we have started to reverse that decline, with an 11% reduction in outflow year on year.
I welcome the Minister to her place. Over the past year I have had the privilege of taking part in the armed forces parliamentary scheme, and have met people across the United Kingdom and beyond. One of the issues that arises when it comes to retention is that of the families of overseas workers in the armed forces. They have no access to work opportunities, and there are no specific visas or agreements with other countries where our armed forces are based, which means that they must often take pay cuts or not relocate with their partners in the forces. Will the Minister think about what we can do to support armed forces workers overseas?
I have served overseas and observed this issue at first hand. Discussions with the Cabinet Office are ongoing, and I hope to update the hon. Member in due course.