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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of the total Ghurkha forces in the years 1997 to 2003, leaving the armed forces before 15 years maximum service, (a) left voluntarily, (b) were made redundant, (c) had their employment terminated for other operational reasons, (d) were invalided out and (e) left for other reasons. [130360] Mr. Caplin: All data in the tables are taken from the soldiers' Record of Service. Data given are for Ghurkha other ranks only as there are no officers that fall into the categories described in the question. Number of Ghurkha soldiers who left the service with less than 15 years service1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Reason 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 Left voluntarily 0 0 0 0 0 0 Redundant 140 * 0 0 0 0 Discipline/misconduct * * * 0 0 0 Invalided * * 0 0 0 0 Completed service 20 10 20 * * 0 Death * * * 0 * * _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Note that all numbers in the data table are rounded to the nearest 10, numbers less than five are represented with a "*" to preserve confidentiality. Percentage of Ghurkha soldiers who left the service with less than 15 years service _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Reason 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 Left voluntarily 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Redundant 4.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Discipline/misconduct 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 Invalided 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Completed Service 0.5 0.2 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.0 Death 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The 140 personnel shown as redundant in the years 1997-98 reflect the drawdown of the Brigade of Ghurkhas at the time of the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. The Army Personnel Centre have confirmed that they are all in receipt of a service pension. Of the 50 shown as having completed service before 15 years in years 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000, inquiries through the Army Personnel Centre have revealed several individuals were actually made redundant and are therefore in receipt of a pension as a result of the drawdown. Virtually all of the remaining individuals are in receipt of a pension either because they received condonation of service to increase their reckonable service to 15 years or are in receipt of other types of pension as appropriate (Liberalised Family Pension or Ordinary Family Pension).

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

130360; 410 c1164-5W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Armed forces Discharges Dismissal Gurkhas Redundancy Termination of employment

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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