---

Territorial Army Rebalancing

Given the end of the cold war, we considered what the post-cold war structure should be, as part of the strategic defence review. Of course, this further rebalancing will take account of the new Army structures and infantry structures. We are mirroring the restructuring, which involves recognising where the pinch points and the critical shortfalls occur. As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, we are re-roling about 3,000 Regular Army posts to try to make good that problem, and the same applies across the TA. That is why the rebalancing is taking place. It will give those forces greater usability and greater impact, and therefore greater influence over what we seek to do in defence of the national interest. The civil contingency reaction force was not mentioned because it will remain unchanged. That role continues. The hon. Gentleman asked about harmony, and I said that it was an aim, but a legal requirement is involved. I do not know how that will play out, because it depends on tempo and usage. We will seek, as best we can, to achieve the higher harmony guidelines, because we value our people, but my experience of the TA is that a lot of them want to serve anyway, and they want to do so frequently. The hon. Gentleman asked about Orkney and Shetland. No change is planned on Orkney, but we are considering the possibility of closing the very small unit on Shetland. We are talking, from memory, about only 19 TA members, with three support staff. Although it does not quite fit the neat rebalancing, I decided that is appropriate to keep the Shetland unit. Over time, it will be re-roled to match the engineer unit on Orkney. We will deal sensitively with those who are currently in the TA. We have decided to retain the unit. I am conscious of the fact that we recently decided to close Saxa Vord on Shetland. If the unit had closed, it would have meant that there was a bit of the United Kingdom where the military was not flying the Union flag. I did not think that such a decision would be appropriate, given the remoteness of the island. The hon. Gentleman asked about retention and recruitment. Of course, retention is clearly an issue. Some of the figures could be occasioned by the fact that, once people have completed their deployments and had their moment of contribution and excitement, some of them will probably leave, perhaps because they are under employment pressure. We need to get a better handle on all that—a better understanding of it—but against a very significant decline in recruitment in the early post-SDR period, it is now increasing. That is encouraging, and we must seek to maintain all that. As at 1 January 2006, there were 297 more recruits than in January 2005—a 1 per cent. increase. As at 1 February 2006, there were 323 more recruits than at 1 February 2005—again, a 1 per cent. increase. That looks like an upward trend, but we must maintain that. Again, I make the point that we have consulted extensively on that among the TA, and the rebalancing will give greater focus and an even higher level of commitment, if that is possible, in the way in which the TA conducts itself, because it will have all the new arrangements, with a more coherent structure. On medical staff, there is no question that we have issues in relation to them. That is one of the critical points, and the NHS also suffers from it in trying to recruit. Our judgment is to get the numbers to a realistic size, but I mention history again: medical support to the Army was effectively undermined under the last Tory Administration.