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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the shortfall of service men in (a) the Army, (b) the Marines, (c) the Royal Navy and (d) the RAF; and to what extent the shortfall is supplemented by the Territorial Army. [2140] Mr. Ingram: The shortfalls in the trained strength of the armed forces as at 1 May 2001 are shown in the table. Column 3 shows the extent to which the shortfalls were being ameliorated by the use of Volunteer Reservists (e.g. the Territorial Army) and Regular Reservists: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Shortfall FTRS{ 1} Remaining shortfall Royal Navy 1,042 476 566 Royal Marines 375 51 342 Army 8,746 674 8,072 RAF 1,795 {1}36 1,759 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} This includes Limited Commitment (LC) and Home Commitments (HC) Full Time Reservists serving in the RAF. Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) is a new form of reserve service introduced by the Reserve Forces Act 1996. This legislation enables reservists to be employed on a wider variety of tasks than previously. This change has been particularly well received by personnel of the Reserve Forces and is being well used. It should be noted that both members of the Volunteer Reserve Forces, such as the Territorial Army (TA), and members of the Ex-Regular Reserve Forces (i.e. ex-Regulars who have left full-time service) can undertake FTRS. Reservists also contribute to enduring operations such as the Balkans and Sierra Leone by volunteering to be called out for permanent (i.e. mobilised) service, normally six-month tours. At present some 500 reservists are called out into permanent service. Although this further contribution by the Reserve Forces helps to relieve the Regular Forces shortfalls, it is short-term and does not count against the manpower strengths and requirements of the Regular Forces.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

2140; 371 c364W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Armed forces Army Air force Staff Navy Reserve forces Vacancies Territorial Army Marines

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk