§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of his Department's new guard service and of its performance relative to previous arrangements.
§ Mr. HanleyThe MOD Guard Service (MGS) was implemented on 1 October 1992 to bring together a variety of guarding grades locally recruited at some 300 different sites under a wide variety of conditions of service. While the guards had given good service and provided security which was generally high, the new service is designed to produce a more professional body with commonality of uniform; professional standards; pay; conditions of service; staffing structure; and centralised training. The result is an improved performance over the previous arrangements. For the future, improvements to MGS training together with the introduction of recently formulated national vocational qualifications for guarding will further enhance the high standards already achieved.