Geraldine McCool, Head of the Military Injuries Claims Team, Discusses The Election And Defence

All major political parties committed to carrying out the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) which is due this Summer but all have their own views on the direction that this review and in turn our Defence spending should go.

The headlines in the run up to the election were focused on the Trident nuclear deterrent but there are other military decisions to be made which will need close scrutiny.

Defence budgets will be under review and the Conservatives have not committed to ring-fencing MoD funding. The key questions is that what human cost would any cuts have? Reducing the number of armed forces personnel could have a devastating effect as it could leave the MoD too stretched which is when mistakes can creep in.

The most recent statistics showed that the majority of deaths and serious injuries to armed forces personnel occurred during training exercises and it important that safety is improved not compromised to protect our soldiers from injury.

Set alongside this are concerns over honouring the Armed Forces Covenant and ensuring our veterans and injured soldiers are treated with the appropriate respect they deserve whether they are applying for care, or looking for local authority housing after medical discharge. What is needed is consistency across the UK for our armed forces personnel – something which is not the case at present.

There are also worries that with further cuts Defence spending will not meet NATO’s recommended 2% of GDP, something which many have been lobbying MPs on for quite some time and it will be interesting to how any new Government seeks to address these issues.

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in Military Injuries Claims.