THE Ministry of Defence Police has been stripped so much it is in danger of no longer functioning, the force\u2019s federation has warned.<\/p>\n
The once 3,500-strong force has shrunk to 2,600 \u2013 Eamon Keating, chairman of the Defence Police Federation, (pictured) said another 200 officers are urgently needed to be recruited if the force is to function.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Keating told the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, Anna Soubry, that the force has lost around a third of the workforce over the past five years,<\/p>\n He was speaking at the federation\u2019s annual meeting in Glasgow last month.<\/p>\n The force, dedicated to protecting defence sites and national infrastructure, is losing corporate knowledge and institutional memory, Mr Holmes warned.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cMinister, I must state, quite frankly, that the MDP is now urgently in need of at least 200 officers if we are to deliver what the MOD requires of us without expecting our existing officers to never be ill, injured, in training or on leave.<\/p>\n \u201cThe MOD is now faced with a stark choice. Does it want a service that can secure its assets or does it want a service it can continue to strip until it is no longer capable of functioning?\u201d<\/p>\n