The increase in the number of British troops suffering from hearing disabilities after combat in Iraq and Afghanistan could leave regiments struggling to fulfil their commitments, it was claimed yesterday.

Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said that the growing problem could have a “big impact on the number of soldiers available for deployment” and needed to be investigated fully.

A former Royal Marine also said that regiments were facing the prospect of “attrition” as a result of the increase in the number of hearing ailments because sufferers were no longer able to serve in the front line with their units. “If a unit loses 20 men because of serious hearing problems that will have huge consequences for the infantry,” the man, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

Responding to the Times report on the increasing number of soldiers complaining of profound deafness, the Royal British Legion and the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID) said that they had been trying to persuade the Ministry of Defence to improve compensation for troops with Service-related hearing ailments.

Since July 2005 compensation has been paid on a graded system, depending on the damage to the ear caused by blast injuries and other battle noise. But soldiers seeking compensation for hearing impairment sustained before 2005 have found it more difficult to gain adequate compensation.

Under the pre2005 scheme, Service personnel suffering hearing problems arising from battle noise had to prove that they had suffered at least a 20 per cent disability, the equivalent of losing 50 decibels of sound. Ordinary conversation registers about 60 decibels. The pre2005 threshhold has been a source of anger and frustration because many soldiers with a hearing loss of slightly less than 20 per cent received no compensation at all.

James Bond, pensions and benefits services manager at the Royal British Legion, said that before 1993 the MoD operated three levels of compensation for hearing loss below the 20 per cent figure: 1-5 per cent loss, 6-14 per cent and 15-19 per cent. “So someone in the 6-14 per cent category was awarded something like £3,500 as a lump sum, but that was changed in 1993,” he said.

Since the new Armed Forces scheme was introduced in 2005, all hearing injuries have merited compensation, which means that troops affected in Afghanistan are covered. The Royal British Legion is dealing with 75 claims from ex-servicemen who have become deaf from battle noise in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Companies and organisations contacted The Times in amazement that the MoD had not bought any of the advanced systems developed recently. The MoD said that a new protection device was being studied.

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