Thousands of armed forces personnel not medically fit for war, government says

More than 10,000 people in the armed forces are deemed not medically fit for deployment, the Ministry of Defence has said.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

In a written parliamentary statement, defence minister Al Carns revealed that across the armed forces, 99,560 are medically fully deployable, with 14,350 having limited deployability and 13,522 medically not deployable. It means 13,522 could not be sent to fight for Britain while a further 14,350 would only be able to fight under certain conditions, such as avoiding exposure to extreme weather, noise or chemicals or meeting other medical requirements.

The figures come after defence secretary John Healey suggested the UK’s armed forces are in such a dire state that the country is not ready to deter an invasion. In his most damning assessment yet of the state of the UK’s defence capability, John Healey said the military could conduct “operations”, but would be unable to stop an enemy from invading.

Former armed forces minister James Heappey said he believes that a “good chunk” of the more than 10,000 members of the navy, army and air force who are medically unfit to be deployed are classed as so because they have not had a dental check-up. Mr Heappey, who was a Conservative MP before standing down in July, told Times Radio that the status of some of the 10,000 personnel would change if Britain was at war.