§ 9. Mr. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Hall Green)How many British troops are currently deployed in Bosnia. [90207]
§ The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. George Robertson)The UK contributes about 4,500 personnel to SFOR, of whom about 3,500 are based in Bosnia.
§ Mr. McCabeDoes my right hon. Friend agree that the only way in which we can reduce overstretch is to reduce the level of our overall commitments? When does he hope for a reduction in Bosnia, which is now relatively peaceful? When does he hope to announce a cut in numbers in Kosovo now that KFOR is virtually in place?
§ Mr. RobertsonMy hon. Friend is right to point to the success in Bosnia, which I hope will allow us to draw down some of our troops later this year. That will have an impact on the present strain on our armed forces. My hon. Friend is right also to say that we must examine carefully our commitments to Kosovo. The improvements in the security situation there and the continuing arrival in theatre of troops from other nations make it possible for me to announce some further withdrawals of British troops from Kosovo.
Between August and October, we shall be bringing home the 1st Parachute Regiment, the 1st Royal Gurkha, Rifles and the Irish Guards battle groups, together with their supporting elements. These withdrawals, along with withdrawals of units of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy which were announced last month, will go a long way to help relieve the overstretch in the armed forces. Further withdrawals, including that of the headquarters of the Allied Command Europe rapid reaction corps, will of course follow.
§ Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury)Will the Secretary of State confirm that even if all the withdrawals that he 784 mentioned go ahead, welcome as they are, there will still be substantially more service personnel in the Balkans now than there were 18 months ago? Will he further confirm that the Government when in opposition having attacked the levels of overstretch that pertained at the end of the previous Government's administration, tour intervals in the infantry, the engineers and the cavalry are now at the worst levels since data began to be collected?
§ Mr. RobertsonI confirm that there are more troops in the Balkans now than there were 18 months ago. That is pretty well self-evident. Troop numbers were quite high in Bosnia and we have put extra troops into Kosovo. I do not think that anybody among our armed forces or anyone in the House would suggest that because we had a degree of over-commitment before we should not have risen to the challenge that Milosevic posed in his genocidal violence inside Kosovo.
We must now move rapidly to reduce our commitment in as many areas as practicable, and that is precisely what I have said. We look to bringing more troops out of Bosnia because of an improvement in the security situation there. We shall reduce the number of our troops in Kosovo. All of that will contribute to bringing back the problem about tour levels to a position that will be more satisfactory for our troops and for us in the Ministry of Defence. Those are of enormous priority to us. They not only impact on our fighting forces and their efficiency, but they affect the individuals themselves and their families and, having met a number of service families recently, I know how important that is. That is why we are making it an absolute priority when we study the commitments that we have taken on and that we should have taken on.