HL Deb 30 March 1995 vol 562 cc98-9WA
Lord Marlesford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

When they plan to publish the draft Reserve Forces legislation.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Henley):

We are today publishing the draft Reserve Forces Bill, with accompanying notes. Copies will be available from the Printed Paper Office. Outside the House, the document is also being distributed widely to reserve units, employers and others, and is available on request from the Ministry of Defence.

The Bill is an important one. It brings the legislation on reserves up to date, to take account of changes in both the security environment and British society since the last substantial revision in 1966. The Bill principally provides:

  1. (a) A new power of call-out for peacekeeping, humanitarian and disaster relief operations;
  2. (b) Two new categories of reserve:
    1. —the high readiness reserve: individuals with skills in short supply who, voluntarily and with the consent of their employer, accept a greater call out liability; and
    2. —the sponsored reserve, which will permit us to let more support activities to contract knowing that the reserve element allows the task to be continued in an operational environment by uniformed personnel.
  3. (c) A new opportunity to enable reservists to undertake tasks other than training in peacetime;
  4. (d) Three new safeguards:
    1. —for individuals, powers for my department to make payments to reservists in cases where their military pay when called-out is less than their civilian pay;
    2. —for employers, powers for my department to make payments whenever a reservist who is also an employee is called-out;
    3. —for both, new, formal rights to seek exemption from and deferral of call-out or recall, exercisable by employers or reservists themselves.

All this is set within a comprehensive tri-service legal framework for the reserves, which will greatly simplify their use in the future.

Particular attention has been given to the tripartite relationship between the Ministry of Defence, the reservist, and his or her employer. Full account has been taken of the comments received following the publication of a consultation document in October 1993, and I believe the Bill will meet with widespread acceptance from those affected by it.

The Bill's publication in draft forms part of the Government's commitment to improving the quality of legislation brought before Parliament, and we look forward to receiving many constructive comments. The Consultation period lasts until 15 June.