§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
With effect from 1 April 2004 the three single Service personnel agencies will cease to have agency status. This decision came about from the Service personnel process review conducted last year and referred to by my right honourable friend for Member for East Kilhride on 17 July 2002 (Official Report, col. 277–78W).
The review also identified that the career management and manpower planning work of the three Service manning agencies did not wholly suit agency status, because they were primarily support and enabling functions rather than concerned with the provision of a clear and discreet deliverable service. I therefore concluded that agency status for the agencies (Naval Manning, Army Personnel and. RAF Personnel Management Agency) should cease.
I am pleased to tell the House that a considerable amount of work continues in many other areas. These include further reviews of tri-service recruiting and welfare and many of the review recommendations have been swept into a service personnel plan, parallel with and linked to the equipment programme and within the framework of the defence White Paper published last December.
I intend to report on further progress to the House later in the year.