HC Deb 25 January 1999 vol 324 cc5-7
2. Mr. Bob Russell (Colchester)

When he will announce the location of the Parachute Regiment as a result of the strategic defence review. [65524]

The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. George Robertson)

I hope to be able to announce the future location of the Parachute Regiment in the near future.

Mr. Russell

Does the Secretary of State accept that there is a lot of anxiety in the garrison towns of Colchester and Aldershot about where the Parachute Regiment will eventually be based, given that the strategic defence review proposed that 24 Air Mobile Brigade in Colchester should be brought together with the Parachute Regiment in Aldershot? Surely the time is long overdue for that anxiety to be put to one side. All the personnel, military and civilian, should know what is going on.

Mr. Robertson

The hon. Gentleman is right and we shall be able to do that shortly. I understand the concerns that he expresses on behalf of his constituents. He will be aware that a large number of moves—in the military as well as the geographical sense—were necessary in association with the creation of two new brigade formations that arose from the strategic defence review. The issues are coming to a head and I hope to be able to make an announcement soon.

Mr. Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley)

While my right hon. Friend is considering the future of the paras, will he also consider the future of the 101 Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and ensure that we get correct answers in the House? Will he ask the National Audit Office to investigate the misleading financial information that has come out?

Mr. Robertson

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his tenacious approach to the decision that we put forward on the restructuring and modernisation of the Territorial Army. My hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces will have heard his words. All the decisions in the strategic defence review and the restructuring of the Territorial Army that was part of it were carefully considered in the wider context. The National Audit Office has a remit to look at all aspects of my Department, which it regularly does.

Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot)

The Secretary of State persists with the fiction that no decision has been made, but it is not good enough to tell the House that. Is he aware that the Aldershot News carries detailed information from documents provided by the military showing the advanced stage of the plans to move the Parachute Regiment and 5 Airborne Brigade from Aldershot to Colchester? It is not acceptable for the right hon. Gentleman to persist with the suggestion that no decision has been made, when the military has all the plans. May I remind him that the Defence Select Committee suggested that the Secretary of State, in making the decision—which appears to have been made, according to the reports—ought to give full justification for any move from Aldershot?

Mr. Robertson

May I make it absolutely clear to the hon. Gentleman that the decision has not been taken? Ministers in my Department make decisions, and the relevant decision has not been made. Recommendations may be circulating among those up the military structure, but at the top of the chain of command are Ministers of the Crown, and we will take the decision.

I understand that we have a friendly rivalry between the hon. Members representing the two garrison towns affected—the hon. Members for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) and for Colchester (Mr. Russell)—and I can assure them that a wise and proper decision will be made. Aldershot is one of the four main Army garrison towns in the United Kingdom and the people there have always regarded themselves as a major part of the British Army. That will continue to be the case. Whatever the precise composition of the units at Aldershot, I do not reckon that there will be any great alteration to the numbers of people who are based there.

Although we have not made a decision about the Parachute Regiment's location, I can announce that the Joint Helicopter Command—which will be part and parcel of that decision—will be based at the Army's Land Command headquarters at Wilton in Wiltshire. The headquarters will form on 1 October this year and will be fully operational by 1 April next year. Some 12,000 service personnel and 350 helicopters will, in the first instance, come under the command of Air Vice-Marshal David Niven.