HC Deb 30 March 1995 vol 257 c747W
Dr. David Clark

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to publish the Reserve Forces Bill. [17171]

Mr. Soames

We are today publishing the draft Reserve Forces Bill, copies of which are available from the Vote Office. Outside the House, the document is 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 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: —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 —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 peace time;
  4. (d) Three new safeguards:)
—for individuals, powers for MOD to make payments to reservists in cases where their military pay when called out is less than their civilian pay; —for employers, powers for MOD to make payments whenever a reservist who is also an employee is called out; —for both, new, formal, rights to seek exemption from and deferral of call-out or recall, exercisable by employers or reservists themselves.

All this work 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 I look forward to receiving many constructive comments. The consultation period lasts until 15 June.