§ Mr. David StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the frequency of detached duties for(a) medical staff,(b) RAF regiment personnel and (c) catering staff. [133156]
§ Mr. IngramThe Naval Service has introduced a maximum limit for separated service for junior rates of 660 days in a rolling three-year period, and to date, no-one has exceeded this limit. While Royal Navy medics and chefs are examples of current shortage categories and some personnel are stretched, the aim is that this will be balanced out over a three-year period.
The Army introduced Separated Service recording in December 2002, but will not have sufficiently mature information for release until mid-2004, by when there will have been a minimum of 12 months data for analysis. Information on the frequency of detached duties for medical staff is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. For catering staff, chefs are embedded in every deployable Army unit and again specific details on individuals are not held centrally.
The RAF introduced a Separated Service (SS) recording system on 1 April 1997 to monitor the amount of time personnel spend on detached duty. The levels of Separated Service1 for operational reasons, from September 2002 to August 2003 for medical staff, RAF regiment personnel and catering staff were as follows:
1 An incidence of Separated Service is recorded when an individual is absent from their parent unit for three nights or more.
Branch/trade1 Medical RAF regiment Catering Less than 90 days Number 417 832 411 Percentage 30.3 40.1 31.7 90 to 139 days Number 158 486 230 Percentage 11.5 23.7 17.8 Over 140 days Number 27 188 42 Percentage 1.9 9.2 3.2 1 All figures include officers and other ranks.