§ Mrs. HealTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will detail the assessment he has made on the number of service and ancillary redundancies that will result from an amalgamation of the Staffordshire Regiment and the Cheshire Regiment.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonRedundancies will be spread across the Army, and will not be concentrated in Regiments that are due to be amalgamated. Until the applications for redundancy have been assessed it is not possible to provide the detail requested.
§ Mrs. HealTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence why he decided not to consult or warn the colonel of the Staffordshire Regiment of the likelihood of amalgama-tion; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonAll regimental colonels were invited to express their views about how the reductions were to be achieved, but none were told of the Army Board's decisions before the day of the announcement.
§ Mrs. HealTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will detail the assessment he has made of the extra burden on local authority housing provision in Staffordshire and the west midlands resulting from the service job losses created by an amalgamation of the Staffordshire Regiment and the Cheshire Regiment.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonI am not able to make such an assessment. Redundancies will be spread across the Army and not confined to those units which are to be amalgamated or disbanded. It is not possible to state at this time how many members of the Staffordshire Regiment or the Cheshire Regiment will be made redundant. Nor do we have any information on the proportion of those made redundant who will wish to settle in Staffordshire and the west midlands and who will be seeking local authority housing. We believe that the majority will be in a position to make other arrangements for their housing.