§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the postings were of the lst Battalion, The King's Regiment for the last two years; and what postings are planned in the next year. [174740]
§ Mr. Ingram1st Battalion, The King's Regiment has been based at Catterick since March 2001. The Regiment deployed to Iraq from June to October 2003. One Company has since deployed to Kosovo, where they remain. During the period the unit has exercised in 1254W Canada (in the summer of 2002) and was involved in Operation Fresco (towards the end of 2002 and the start of 2003).
It is currently planned that a Company from the unit will deploy to the Falkland Islands later this year. The remainder of the unit is scheduled to undertake a number of routine tasks in support of the training of other units.