§ Mr. JenkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many infantry were employed by the British Army, broken down by rank, excluding vacancies according to the latest available statistics; and what projections for numbers of infantry were made for the Defence Review. [187008]
§ Mr. CaplinThe trained Infantry Strengths as at 1 July 2004 are as follows:
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Runk Trained Officers Lt Col 360 Lt Col (Special List) 5 Major 1,020 Captain 1,025 Lt 495 2Lt 50 Officer total 2,955 Other ranks WO1 150 WO2 855 SSGT 955 SGT 1,825 CPL 3,615 LCPL 3,765 PTE 11,615 Soldier total 22,780 Infantry trained strength total 25,735 Note: Totals have been rounded to the nearest five. The manpower released from the reduction of four infantry battalions equates to approximately 2,500 posts, all of which will be reinvested back in to the Army. While a proportion of these will be reallocated back into the infantry itself to develop more robust and resilient establishments, others will be reinvested in the most heavily committed specialists such as logisticians, engineers, signallers and intelligence. Exact details in terms of the numbers allocated to each individual Arms and Service have yet to be fully worked through and finalised.