Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Gerald Howarth (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 22 October 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Reserve Forces

Question: Earlier this year, the Chief of the General Staff, Sir Richard Dannatt, in an internal Ministry of Defence note, expressed the following concern:"““Our reserves to meet the unexpected (as well as for current operations) are now almost non-existent…We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected””." Is that not a shocking indictment of this Government's stewardship of our armed forces?

Answer: It is not the view of the chiefs of the defence staff that we are asking more than is possible of our armed forces. We, as Ministers, share the concern that our armed forces are extremely busy and that there is not a great residue of capacity left aside. We all know that we have two current operations going on. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman is saying that all our armed forces are working extremely hard. No one is trying to hide that at all, but we are dealing with the situation, and our armed forces are dealing with it in an exemplary fashion.

Secondary information