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Defence Reform Bill

I accept that a very small number of Territorials are ready for instant deployment, but I have to say that the Territorial Army units that I have seen—none of which have been so-called special forces, and which I shall not name—have been a very, very long way from being ready for instant deployment. That is just my experience, but I fear that the Territorials who came to support me on operations were never up to snuff until we had given them concerted and extensive periods of training, including fitness training.

I think that if we wish to avoid trouble, it is quite wrong for us to reduce the size of our Regular forces until our Territorial or Reserve forces are fully in place, fully equipped, and fully trained to deploy. I understand that the standards are different, and I respect the fact that Reservists need a period of training before they can deploy, but I think it irresponsible to allow our Regular forces, with their instant deployment capability, to be run down before we have an adequate replacement.