Army

Army Accused Of 'Manipulating' Reserve Numbers

While the world was watching the results of the US election last week, the UK government made an announcement about the Army Reserve.

Almost 2,000 reservists were reclassified as "trained strength" after the definition of what that means was changed.

Previously, 'trained strength' reservists meant those who have completed both the basic phase 1 training, as well as specialist phase 2 training.

Now, those who have only completed the first phase have been relabelled as part of the larger 'trained strength' force.

This comes amidst plans to increase the Army reserve to a trained strength of 30,000 by 2020.

Recruitment was initially slow and plagued with problems, with critics saying targets would never be reached on time.

But recruitment has gathered pace, with the latest figures from the Ministry of Defence, published in September, showing the Army Reserve trained strength stands at 23,750.

Now, with the alteration to the definition of "trained strength", another 1800 individuals who are between phases 1 and 2 can be considered to be a part of that pool.

That would mean they can provide manpower for emergency tasks like flood defences.

But opposition Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith MP says it's an attempt to manipulate the figures.

"I suspect the reason they've chosen now to change the figures is to try to make it look as if their on target for their target of 30,000 reservists by 2020".

Mrs Griffith also said the 'manipulation of the numbers' was "pathetic" and that the government should be more focused on increasing recruits for the Army Reserve.

Some other critics think the change means the 'one army concept' is out of the window.

They complain that this means Britain will be left with a two-tier system of trained capable regular soldiers, and less well-trained, less capable reservists.

And with the regular Army currently 5,000 soldiers short, there is mounting pressure on the reserves to fill the gap.

The MoD said in a statement:

“To meet the increased utility and productivity requirement, the Army broadened the definition of trained strength to include Regular and Reserve Army Phase One trained personnel in July. This has increased the pool of manpower available for a national emergency. Any deployment of Phase One trained personnel would be subject to appropriate supervisory ratios and duty of care regimes.”