---

Iraq

My Lords, the role of our Reserve Forces is crucial to the roulement, as I have said, and in particular to the process by which the forces take over in the coming month. I shall give the House some idea of the level: as at 8 September, there were 650 reservists deployed in Iraq, carrying out a range of duties relating to matters such as medical support, force protection and individual reinforcements to units. The need for reservists to continue to deploy is part of normal business for our Reserve Forces. Their deployment will ease the burden on the troops that are there of routine security tasks. It is essential to our operational strategy in theatre.