HL Deb 14 July 1994 vol 556 cc109-10WA
Lord Gray of Contin

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What are their plans for the future role and size of the Territorial Army.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Viscount Cranborne)

In June last year, I informed the House that changes in the international situation had provided us with the opportunity to introduce new roles for the reserves, and I announced detailed proposals for changes to the structure of Navy and RAF reserves. I said that we were also examining the operational requirement for the Army's reserves and hence the size and shape of the Territorial Army. We have now reached certain conclusions.

The role of the Territorial Army will be to act as a general reserve to the Army. It will remain an integral component of our defence forces on mobilisation, and we intend to make greater use of volunteers in peacetime. My announcement in April about the deployment of a composite TA platoon and company to the Falkland Islands was one example of this. We shall also be examining the scope to utilise the TA in new tasks, such as providing exercise opposition forces and in public duties. A specific new role will be to transfer the flying support to the Field Army currently provided by 658 Squadron Army Corps, to 666 Squadron (Volunteer) at Netheravon. As a consequence 658 Squadron will be disbanded from April 1995. Two other new tasks will be to role a TA unit as the Army's Nuclear Biological and Chemical defence regiment equipped with the Fuchs armoured vehicle; and another as an armoured delivery regiment. These will be challenging and exciting roles for the units concerned.

The formed units of the TA will be retained at their present planned size of 59,000. The recruits pool of 4,500 (which was introduced in 1992 as a margin to enable the TA to hold untrained TA personnel above its establishment) is no longer necessary because of the reduced threat to the United Kingdom and the consequent reduction in the level of readiness required of the TA. The recruits pool will therefore be abolished. The detailed structure of the TA is also being examined. This may lead to proposals for re-roling units or other changes. The TA itself will continue to be directly involved in this work, and a further announcement will be made later in the year.