Cuts threaten safety at Ministry of Defence sites, warns report

Defence Environment and Safety Board warns that austerity will ‘undoubtedly place a severe strain on systems’ An official Ministry of Defence report has warned that cutbacks threaten to compromise safety at the UK’s leading military sites and on its aircraft, submarines and ships. The Defence Environment and Safety Board is the senior panel that reports to ministers about all aspects of safety across the MoD estate, including nuclear weapons sites. Its 2010 report, just published , concludes that, while the outcome of the government’s ongoing defence reform review is unclear, “the need to reduce costs and the severe reduction in personnel numbers will undoubtedly place a severe strain on safety systems”. It finds there has been “little evidence of improvement” in safety levels since last year and notes the number of safety-related deaths of MoD personnel more than doubled over the year, rising from 7 to 15. In addition, four Crown Improvement Notices, requiring urgent action to tackle safety shortcomings, were issued last year, compared with none in 2009. The report warns: “It will become increasingly difficult to maintain that the defence nuclear programmes are being managed with due regard for the protection of the workforce, the public and the environment”, noting the principal threats to safety in the medium term “are the adequacy of resources… and the maintenance of a sustainable cadre of suitably competent staff”. “A private company would never be able to get away with such a poor safety performance as that shown by the Ministry of Defence,” said Peter Burt, of the Nuclear Information Service, which is opposed to nuclear weapons. The report also says much of the military’s fuels storage infrastructure must be classed as high risk, because it “is beyond its designated life” and “falls below current legislative requirements in key areas”. Defence policy Public sector cuts Nuclear weapons Public services policy Public finance Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.