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Written question asked by Liam Fox (Conservative) on Monday, 17 November 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 November 2008. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Monday, 24 November 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.


Army: Deployment

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what percentage of the Army failed to meet (a) harmony guidelines for tour intervals and (b) separated service guidelines in the latest period for which figures are available, broken down by corps;
Answer

The percentage of Army units (within those Corps for which we record Tour Interval information) failing to meet Harmony Guidelines, as at 20 November 2008, is 46 per cent. The breakdown is as follows:

Corps Percentage breaching harmony guidelines
Royal Artillery 55
Royal Armoured Corps 22
Infantry 50

The percentage of Army personnel failing to meet Separated Service guidelines, as at 31 December 2006, is 10.3 per cent. This is the most recent data available. It is hoped that Separate Service data will in future be produced by the Joint Personnel Administration system.The average Tour Intervals for each Army Corps (for which we record tour interval information), as at 20 November 2008, is as follows:

Corps Average tour interval (months)
Royal Artillery 25
Royal Armoured Corps ¹25
Infantry ²23
¹ Excludes two Royal Tank Regiment (2RTR) as they have not deployed as a formed unit since 2003.
² Excludes one and two LANCS due to their amalgamation (1 KORBR, 1 KINGS and QLR) in 2006.

The Unit Tour Interval is a less relevant measure when applied to other Corps (such as the Royal Engineers and the Royal Corps of Signals). This is due to the frequency with which personnel move between formed units within these Corps (the personnel deployed with a unit will be substantially different from the personnel deployed with the same unit on a previous occasion). Unit tour interval data for these Corps is not, therefore, routinely collated.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
483 c895W; 237809
Session
2007-08
Subjects
Army Deployment
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk