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Afghanistan

The hon. Gentleman is right that the Army wishes to, and should be able to, increase its establishment. In terms of the armed forces as a whole, when we came to power they were, I think, 95 per cent. established—in other words, 95 per cent. of the necessary level of troops were provided. I think that figure is now 97 per cent. He is therefore right that we wish to recruit and retain more troops for the armed forces—that is what we intend to do and that is what we budget for. He makes the important point that this is about recruitment and then about retention. We shall do whatever we can, in consultation with the armed forces, to move that forward.