The armed forces must do more to care for under-18s, MPs on Parliament's Defence Committee recommended last week.

The committee's Duty of Care report noted a series of failures by the Ministry of Defence in its duty of care to servicemen and women under 18. The report follows the deaths of several young recruits at Deepcut barracks in Surrey.

Recommendations include Criminal Records Bureau checks on all instructors working with 16- to 18-year-olds and allowing care-leavers to access their social workers until they turn 21.

The committee also suggested that cadet forces could work with the armed forces to improve their handling of under-18s.

But cadet groups played down their role. Brigadier Ian McGill, general secretary of the Army Cadet Force Association, said: "Cadets are not part of the Army and are not a recruitment tool."

Amyas Godfrey, head of the UK Armed Forces Programme at military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, branded the committee's suggestions "lame".

"The Army has been doing a lot of the work," he said. "The problem is a lack of investment in personnel. The Army always looked after its own, but because of the lack of investment and breakdown in the family ethos, it may need to change that."

The Ministry of Defence is required to respond to the committee's recommendations within two months, but the expected general election may delay this.

There are 6,690 under-18s in the armed forces, accounting for 3.2 per cent of all its personnel.

www.parliament.uk.