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Written question asked by Bernard Jenkin (Conservative) on Monday, 4 December 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 December 2006. It was answered by Derek Twigg (Labour) on Monday, 18 December 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Separated Service Guidelines

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel in the (a) Navy, (b) Army and (c) Air Force exceeded guidelines for separated service in each year since 2001; and what assessment he has made of trends in those numbers over that period.
Answer

[holding answer 7 December 2006]: Separated service is recorded as an average percentage of the total trained strength. Separated service has only been recorded for all three services since 2002. Set out in the following table is separated service figures for each service since then.

Percentage of total personnel who have breached individual harmony
Year and quarter Royal Navy Army Royal Air Force
2002-03
Q1 <1 No record 5.3
Q2 <1 No record 5.4
Q3 <1 No record 5.1
Q4 <1 No record 5.0
2003-04
Q1 <1 No record 6.8
Q2 <1 No record 6.2
Q3 <1 No record 6.2
Q4 <1 18.1 5.4
2004-05
Q1 <1 17.0 3.6
Q2 <1 16.8 3.8
Q3 <1 15.5 3.6
Q4 <1 15.5 3.9
2005-06
Q1 <1 15.6 4.1
Q2 <1 15.3 4.1
Q3 <1 15.1 4.2
Q4 <1 14.5 3.9
2006-07
Q1 <1 14.0 2.9
Q2 <1 14.0 1.7

In line with Second Sea Lord's personal functional standards, harmony breaches for the Royal Navy are minimal; the RAF's latest figure puts harmony within target and although the Army's separated service figures breach harmony, the percentage has been gradually reducing as future army structure and Northern Ireland normalisation have taken effect.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
454 c1487-8W;454 c1490W; 105000
Session
2006-07
Subjects
Armed forces Deployment
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk