FREDERICK FORSYTH, the thriller writer commissioned by David Cameron to investigate the country’s treatment of the armed forces, is to propose better wages, higher levels of compensation for the wounded and the scrapping of outdated equipment.

The former RAF pilot will argue in his report that the armed forces have been poorly served by the Labour government and left with obsolete equipment, 35-year-old aircraft and cockroach-infested accommodation.

Forsyth will say it amounts to a violation of the military covenant whereby members of the armed forces are promised high standards of welfare in return for risking their lives. He will detail the cases of 62 service personnel who, he says, have died because of “thin-skinned” Land Rovers, antiquated aircraft or lack of basic equipment such as night-vision goggles.

“I shall be indicting Gordon Brown for how he has let down the armed services both as chancellor and as prime minister,” Forsyth said. “He has refused to release funds; our soldiers haven’t been given the right kit and it has cost lives. The kit was down to the money, and the money was down to the man who is now our prime minister.”

In total, 295 servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, and nearly 1,000 others have been injured.

The report of the Military Covenant Commission, which also includes Simon Weston, the former Welsh Guardsman badly scarred in the Falklands war, will be presented to the Conservative conference in Birmingham a fortnight today.

It makes 22 recommendations. They range from increasing service pay to starting periods of leave when a solider arrives back in Britain rather than when they leave their unit and then spend up to three days travelling home.

On the subject of pay, Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, will suggest that, rather than salaries being recommended by the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body and then imposed by the Ministry of Defence, it should be negotiated. One model could be the board that negotiates teachers’ pay.

The MoD announced a 2.6% pay rise in February. A private now receives a minimum of £16,227 a year plus a tax-free allowance of £2,320 and a £1,000 longer-separation allowance for serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. This has been likened to the pay of a traffic warden by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff.

The lowest wage for a junior teacher is £20,133.

Forsyth also wants a significant increase in payouts for war wounds. His report will compare the case of Lance-Bombardier Ben Parkinson, a paratrooper whose legs were blown off by a landmine in Afghanistan, bringing an award of £152,150, with that of an RAF typist who pursued a claim for repetitive strain injury in her arm and won £484,000.

The report will recommend selling unused MoD training land and buildings to pay for new housing for servicemen and women.

Other proposals include a national armed forces day, when the public can visit bases and watch military tattoos; improved education for the children of service families; and guaranteed places with NHS dentists and on hospital waiting lists when personnel return to Britain from operations.

If adopted in full, Forsyth’s proposals could lead to a steep increase in the defence budget, currently £34 billion, for any future Tory government.

Forsyth said last week: “Some of these things will cost money but we have to treat our service people a lot better than Brown has treated them for 11 years. Compensation for some injured soldiers is less than what a civilian gets for a bruised knee.”

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said: “It’s a matter of priority within the budget and we will do what we can afford to do at any one time.

“We can’t get a full look at the MoD books while in opposition but what we are setting out is our direction of travel and what the priorities we think should be. When we get closer to an election, we will set out in detail what we think we can do and when.”

The MoD said it was already working on various improvements through the service personnel command paper it published in July. This included doubling compensation payments for the most serious injuries to £570,000.

Two new academies would provide extra boarding-school places for service families, it said; and wounded veterans would be granted free bus travel.

It said it had accepted in full all recommendations on pay from the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body, an independent board, since 1999, and was due to spend £8.4 billion on improving living accommodation over the next 10 years.

“The total remuneration package for service personnel – which includes free medical care, an excellent pension and subsidised accommodation – is a good one,” said a spokesman.

An adviser to Des Browne, the defence secretary, said: “We are already a step ahead of Freddie. I don’t think any other government is going to spend as much on defence as us.”

Para shot in ambush

A paratrooper killed in a firefight with Taliban guerrillas in southern Afghanistan on Friday morning was named yesterday as 23-year-old Private Jason Rawstron.

He was shot in the head by Taliban fighters who ambushed his patrol close to a British forward operating base in the Upper Gereshk Valley.

Rawstron, a member of 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, was from Clayton-Le-Moors, Lancashire, and joined the army three years ago.

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