Colonel Stewart says understaffing has been a problem for years

Colonel Bob Stewart, a former commander of UK forces, gives his reaction to the National Audit Office report and discusses how more staff could be recruited.

Are you surprised at the report's findings?

The findings are not in the slightest bit a surprise. The Army has been working under strength for a very long time.

When I went to Bosnia in 1992/93 I was 100 soldiers under strength and we had to find relief from elsewhere.

How serious is the shortfall and what are its implications?

It is very serious indeed. It has always been serious. If you have a shortfall of 100 soldiers as I did you have to find 100 from somewhere else.

Another unit therefore has soldiers deployed when they should be resting. Those soldiers then go back to their units and find themselves soon back in operation without having a proper interval.

It should be two years between operations. I know people who have gone back out on operations, where people die, within months of coming back.

What do you think are the main reasons for the shortfall?

What has happened now is that the pressure on the armed forces by virtue of Iraq and Afghanistan has become so great that people are less inclined to join and are being discouraged by parents.

Parents are also worried when they see reports about Deepcut and are worried when they see reports about soldiers getting into trouble and not being supported by the military.

Soldiers are also leaving because they are overworked. Some young men and women in the report say they left because they weren't on operations enough.

But there's a difference between an 18-year-old who is unmarried and a 25-year-old who is married and perhaps has a child.

He will want to see his family and if he doesn't see enough of them he will get fed up and leave.

Even without a shortfall, do our commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan leave the Army exposed?

Yes. The report says the operations we are carrying out now are beyond what was anticipated and planned for. That is on record.

We are carrying out more than was planned for and we are improperly organised as a result.

We are a small force and because of this we should be second to none in our training and resources.

At the moment we don't have the training and we don't have the equipment we should have.

What can be done to boost Army recruitment and retain personnel?

There is no quick fix. It seems to me strange that new soldiers earn a salary of around �15,000 for a 24/7 job where they are on operations all the time when firemen earn in excess of �20,000.

I'm not running firemen down but they don't work the same number of days. Both run dangers but our soldiers are running huge dangers.

Pay is one thing, but it's not why most people join up. Another problem is they do not get enough rest or holiday.

Also they don't get time to train, which keeps you up to standard but is also a break because people are not trying to shoot you.

Thirdly, we have got to get [beyond] the impression that the armed forces are full of bullies and the impression that if something goes wrong you get blamed for it and court-martialled for it.