§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what changes he intends to make to the presentation of information on the strength of the armed forces. [131788]
§ Mr. SpellarIn order to provide a more accurate and relevant picture of the overall full-time manpower available to the Armed Forces, we plan to include in the definition of the strength of the Services all full-time personnel including Full-Time Reserve Service personnel and, in the case of the Army, Gurkhas. In view of their discrete and specialised task in a particular location the Royal Irish (Home Service) will be reported separately. This change will take effect from September 2000.
The inclusion of Full-Time Reserve Service personnel is in line with our aim to make reserve forces more relevant and usable and is a natural consequence of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 which provides for the employment of reservists in place of full-time regular personnel.