A BLACKPOOL father, whose soldier son committed suicide at a notorious Army barracks, says this week's report into armed forces bullying 'doesn't go far enough'.

Joseph McGregor, of King Edward Avenue, North Shore, believes recruits like his late son Derek will continue to suffer at the hands of bullies, despite the Commons Defence Select Committee's damning report.

The report forced the Army to admit it had 'weaknesses' in parts of its training organisation, but the service said it was making a 'far-reaching' review of training.

But Mr McGregor said: "The committee has made recommendations. But there's nothing to say that the Army will implement them. The report is very critical, but it's not going far enough.

"None of the families of dead soldiers are satisfied with the outcome. The report is only telling the public what we already knew. We are still pressing for a public inquiry."

Mr McGregor's 21-year-old son, Lt Corp Derek McGregor, was stationed at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, for just three weeks before he was found dead on July 7, 2003. He was the thirteenth soldier to die at the base since 1996 and had said he was being bullied. His death is still being investigated by the coroner.Since his son's death, Mr McGregor has been a leading campaigner with Deepcut & Beyond, a group of families of dead soldiers, pressing for a public inquiry into several non-combat army deaths, mainly at Catterick, and Deepcut Barracks, Surrey, where four soldiers died from gunshot wounds between 1995 and 2002, apparently self-inflicted.

The Deepcut deaths sparked the select committee's investigation and report. Recommendations included raising the armed services minimum recruitment age to 18, the creation of an independent complaints panel, and retrospective powers for the panel to re-examine the Deepcut and Catterick deaths.

Joan Humble, MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, newly appointed chair of Deepcut & Beyond, added: "The select committee should be congratulated in producing a very detailed report that acknowledges that bullying does take place and they also recognise the poor treatment given to bereaved families.

But she added: "The Deepcut and Catterick families wanted a full public inquiry and this report falls short of that, so there is still a campaign to be fought.

"I shall be arguing that we need to look beyond Deepcut and also beyond the period of initial training so that the families can be reassured when their sons and daughters go into Army service that they will be properly looked after throughout all their time fighting for their county."