Written question asked by Tobias Ellwood (Conservative) on Tuesday, 20 October 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 22 October 2009. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 November 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Royal Gibraltar Regiment

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what consideration has been given to allowing members of the Gibraltar Regiment to volunteer for front-line duties with UK forces in Operation Herrick.

Answer: The primary role of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment is to support the defence and security of Gibraltar. Deployments in support of other tasks have been undertaken by individual volunteers; 15 personnel from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment have deployed on operations in Afghanistan between August 2004 and February 2009. Since then there has been a temporary suspension in volunteers being deployed while we investigated a potential issue with compensation arrangements covering such deployments. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment are entitled to compensation benefits under their own terms and conditions of service including when deployed to Afghanistan. Work has commenced to bring these compensation arrangements in line with the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme through legislation. The temporary suspension has now been lifted.

Secondary information