§ Mr. Wigginasked the Secretary of State for Defence what savings will accrue from the proposal in the White Paper, Command Paper No. 5976, to reduce by two-thirds the land element of the United Kingdom Mobile Force.
§ Mr. Robert C. BrownNo significant specific savings will accrue directly from the reduction in the land element of the United Kingdom Mobile Force. Such savings will arise from the reorganisation of the Army as a whole, of which this particular change represents only a small part.
The proposed reduction in the United Kingdom's specialised reinforcement forces to NATO will not result in any change to the number of Regular infantry and parachute battalions stationed in the United Kingdom. Those battalions which no longer form part of our specialised reinforcement forces will be allocated rôles either as reinforcements to BAOR or alternatively as home defence forces. Their organisation will be comparable to those battalions forming part of our specialist reinforcement forces and they will be placed under command of the district headquarters in which they are located.