§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of the Civil Contingency Unit for the North East of England have been deployed to Iraq. [122127]
§ Mr. IngramIt is assumed that the hon. Member is referring to the Civil Contingency Reaction Forces (CCRF), introduced as part of the New Chapter to the Strategic Defence Review, of which there are currently two based in the North East of England. CCRF (North), based with the Tyne Tees Regiment at Durham, and CCRF (South), based with the East and West Riding Regiment at Pontefract. The normal establishment of each of these units is 500 personnel.
The numbers of personnel from each that have been called up for service on Operation TELIC, are as follows: 160 personnel from CCRF (North), which represents less than one third of the total; and 144 personnel from CCRF (South), which represents about one quarter of the force. Although working under current call out notices, not all of these personnel may yet have actually deployed to theatre.
The SDR New Chapter introduced the requirement to establish one CCRF per regional brigade area, across the Mainland UK. As a result, and despite the fact that some CCRF personnel have been deployed to the Gulf, the required cover is still available to the North East regional brigade.