GEOFF Hoon's unreserved apology to the relatives of the four young soldiers who died at the Deepcut Barracks is long overdue.

The families have been treated with crass insensitivity by both the Army and the Ministry of Defence.

While Mr Hoon's apology goes some way to meeting the demands of the families, doubts over the cause of death of their loved ones and concerns over the level of care of young Army recruits persist.

The Defence Secretary's statement yesterday failed to grasp these serious and fundamental issues.

Investigations thus far have not examined the extent of bullying within the Army. As a consequence there have been no perceptible reforms within the service to combat the problem.

Army recruits, fresh from school and still in their teens, need to be treated with sympathy and compassion. Parents need to be re-assured that there are appropriate standards of care for their children.

However, the tragedies at Deepcut have created a lack of public confidence in the Army's supervision of recruits.

Mr Hoon is kidding himself, but no one else, if he thinks that public confidence is being restored.

The credibility of the Army is so poor in this particular matter that the setting up of an independent public inquiry to examine the Deepcut fatalities and the wider issue of bullying within the service is the only sensible course of action available to Mr Hoon.

The clamour for an inquiry will not go away. Indeed the momentum of the parents' campaign is such that eventually Mr Hoon will have to concede to their demands.

The longer he refuses to defy their legitimate calls, the more insincere yesterday's apology will seem.