Building for the future

Summary

153.  Overall performance was encouraging, even though operational commitments meant that Service personnel remained very busy. An Operational Welfare Package was successfully deployed worldwide during the year. Implementation of improved pay arrangements across the Services continued, and work to review Service pension and compensation arrangements continued. Accurate systems recording the time Service personnel spend away from their families are now in place for all three Services. A new Strategy for civilians in Defence was introduced. The results of attitude surveys for all three Services and Civil Servants were generally good. Significant further work was taken forward to improve services to veterans.

Service Personnel Developments

154.  The end-year performance report for the 2002/03 Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy (AFOPS) Action Plan was encouraging. Operational commitments meant that Service personnel remained very busy, but steady progress was made over the year, including on implementation of Joint Personnel Administration (see paragraph 180). The AFOPS is now being replaced by the new Service Personnel Plan, which will inform, and be informed by, the Department's wider planning process, to provide a ten-year investment profile and a four-year delivery plan.

Operational Welfare Package (OWP)

155.  The OWP was introduced in 2001 and proved successful in worldwide deployments throughout 2002/03. During Operation TELIC the communications package (the welfare telephone allowance, Internet and e-mail facilities, Forces free aerogrammes (Blueys) and electronic free aerogrammes (e-blueys)) was widely used by deployed personnel and their families. Other initiatives introduced during Operation TELIC included an enhanced postal service, allowing free packets to be delivered to deployed personnel in-theatre, and an expansion of the DILFOR (Dangerously Ill Forwarding of Relatives Overseas) Scheme to enable relatives to visit, at public expense, injured Service personnel who were repatriated to hospitals in the UK. Other elements of the OWP include British Forces Broadcasting Service TV and radio, newspapers, magazines, books, videos, DVDs, Combined Services Entertainment shows and the ability to purchase personal items through the Naval Canteen Service and the Expeditionary Forces Institute.

Pay 2000

156.  Implementation of Pay 2000 continued. It was extended in November 2002 to the majority of the Reserve Forces, and work was taken forward to enable other groups - Veterinary Officers, Chaplains and Officers Commissioned from the Ranks - in the Regular and Reserve Forces to transfer to new pay structures by 1 October 2003. This will complete the transition process for Service personnel moving to Pay 2000. Medical and dental officers continue to have separate pay arrangements and, as a result of recommendations in the Medical Manning and Retention Review, new pay structures were developed for this group and completed in April 2003. In its 2002 Report, the Armed Forces Pay Review Body noted that MOD and the Services had been largely successful in achieving a smooth transition to Pay 2000 and that it would provide a sound basis to reward individuals fairly and to meet the needs of the Services. The Department will carry out a review of Pay 2000 in time for the Review Body's 2004 Report.

Pension and Compensation Review

157.  Following public consultation in 2001 on the initial findings of the reviews of Armed Forces pension and compensation arrangements, proposals have now been finalised, taking account of responses received. This process had been extended by the need for further detailed discussions with the ex-Service community and to respond to the House of Commons Defence Committee, who had expressed far-reaching reservations about the initial proposals, and to take account of the Government Green Paper on pensions and Inland Revenue proposals for pensions tax simplification. A new pension and a new compensation scheme were announced to Parliament on 15 September 2003 and both should be introduced in 2005.

Separated Service Targets

158.  Accurate systems recording the time Service personnel spend away from their families are now in place for all three Services, but meaningful data across all the Services will not be available for some time. Roll out of the TOPMAST system for junior sailors, which aims to ensure that naval personnel spend no more than 660 days in three years away from home, is on track. Early anecdotal evidence suggests that it is working successfully, but the first detailed report is not due until later this year. Army units began recording separated service in January 2003 but meaningful data will not be available until the autumn of 2004, by which time a 12-18 month trend will have been established. The Royal Air Force has seen a small increase in the percentage of personnel (3.3% in the last quarter of 2002/03) exceeding its target of 140 days of separation in any twelve-month period.

Accurate systems recording the time Service personnel spend away from their families are now in place for all three Services.

Civilian Personnel Developments

159.  A new strategy for civilians in Defence was introduced in 2002. This aims to provide a long-term strategy for integrating the management of civilians with business management and radically to improve the quality of the Department's civilian personnel services. The new strategy also emphasises stronger corporate personnel leadership; better forward planning for people requirements, including skills planning; and a focus on performance, reflected in new performance management arrangements and greater priority given to development of employees.

Personnel Attitude Surveys

Royal Navy

160.  Personnel Attitude Surveys were conducted every six months. The results consistently reflected satisfaction with the Royal Navy and the nature of its business. Security of employment had highest ratings, followed by kit replacement and medical and dental facilities. The three areas of greatest dissatisfaction continue to be the inability to plan one's life over the long term, the degree of recognition and reward for long hours (other than pay) and separation from family and friends. As recent Operations draw down, the Navy is committed to periods of leave to allow personnel time with their families and to recuperate after a busy year.

Army

161.  Most officers and soldiers said that they felt proud to be in the Army. Job satisfaction and job security were top of the list. Levels of satisfaction for officers increased; levels of satisfaction for soldiers remained stable. The main areas of dissatisfaction for all ranks were the level of operational commitments and the impact of Army lifestyle on personal domestic life. However, the levels of satisfaction with tour frequency and tour length did not change greatly between the reports in April and December 2002.

Royal Air Force

162.  The results from the Royal Air Force Continuous General Attitude Surveys for November 2001 and February 2002 were published in September 2002. 87% of personnel were satisfied with their life in the Service and their present jobs. Some, however, expressed concerns about the effects of the burden of operational commitments and the impact of Service life on family life (36%), including children's education and spouse/partner's employment.

Civilian

163.  Results for the first year of the rolling Civilian Corporate Attitude Survey were generally positive. Overall, 70% of staff were satisfied or very satisfied with the MOD as an employer, up 4% from the start of the year. 88% were aware of how their job contributed to the Department's aims and objectives, 84% regarded the Department as an equal opportunities employer, 76% judged they were treated fairly at work. Encouragingly, over the year the number of individuals talked to about their personal performance, progress and development in the previous six months grew from 75% to 79%.

Investors in People

164.  By 31 March 2003, all MOD staff, apart from those in newly formed units, were working in organisations that had achieved Investors in People recognition. The majority of Top Level Budget areas have now embarked on a programme to achieve recognition at that level. The next, and final, stage will be for the Department to undergo an assessment leading to recognition as a single organisation.

Veterans

165.  In March 2003 the Department published a new Strategy for Veterans and submitted a report to the Prime Minister outlining the progress made on the Veterans Initiative within Government, the veterans community and the wider public. To improve delivery of services to veterans further, the Department is now reviewing the current collaborative Working Group arrangements in co-operation with partners from other Government departments and the Confederation of British Service and Ex-Service Organisations.

Gulf Veterans' Illnesses

166.  In July 2002, the Department asked the Medical Research Council (MRC) to undertake an independent scientific review of all the UK research work that has been carried out into Gulf veterans' illnesses world-wide and to advise on whether there were any appropriate areas for future research. The MRC published their report in May 2003 and made a number of recommendations for further research. We are consulting with the MRC on how this research might be taken forward and will consult with veterans and other stakeholders in due course.

167.  During 2002/03, 68 patients attended the MOD's Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment Programme (GVMAP), including at the clinic held in Northallerton, Yorkshire. Of those who responded to a patient questionnaire, 97% were satisfied with the Programme. In October 2002, a paper was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine describing the clinical findings for 3,000 Service and ex-Service patients who had been seen at the GVMAP.

168.  On 12 December 2002, the Department provided the House of Commons Defence Committee with a Memorandum on Veterans Issues (including Gulf Veterans' Illnesses issues) followed up by Oral evidence later that month. We also published the fourth edition of the newsletter 'Gulf Update', and the latest Gulf veteran mortality data was published in July 2002 and January 2003.

Depleted Uranium (DU)

169.  Following a successful pilot study to identify a suitable DU screening test for retrospective exposures, tenders for the main testing programme are now being assessed. Voluntary testing for veterans of the Balkans and the 1990/91 Gulf conflicts is due to start in late 2003. A policy for biological monitoring for DU in current and future conflicts was established in August 2002 and was implemented for Operation TELIC. Personnel were offered a simpler test to determine levels of uranium in urine.

170.  A report on the analysis of projectiles recovered in Kosovo was published on the MOD website in June 2003. The full results from the 2001 surveys of DU sites in the UK sector of Kosovo have now been reported and will be available on the MOD website in due course. Results from the 2002 survey in Bosnia are planned to be published before the end of 2003.

171.  A preliminary environmental assessment of DU strike sites in the UK's area of operations in Iraq was completed in June 2003. Further assessments may be undertaken later this year, and are likely to be co-ordinated with the United Nations Environmental Programme surveys.

Porton Down Volunteers

172.  The independent Medical Assessment Programme at St Thomas' Hospital in London continued to be available to former Porton Down Volunteers. The Department is also funding independent epidemiological research to examine whether former volunteers suffer from excess morbidity/mortality or patterns of ill health and is conducting a comprehensive historical survey of the Service Volunteer programme, from 1939 to 1989. The results of this study will be published in due course.

173.  In July 2003, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced their decision that, in all but one case, there is insufficient evidence to prosecute former Porton Down scientists involved in the testing of chemical agents on human volunteers between 1939 and 1989. The remaining case is still being investigated by the Wiltshire Police. The CPS will announce a decision on this case when those enquiries are complete.

Last Updated: 3 Dec 03