Service Personnel: Separated Service (Hansard, 4 December 2001)

§ Lord Bach

Recording separated service for all service personnel is a key objective of the Armed Forces' personnel strategy, reflecting its importance in122WA our efforts to manage the effect of operational tempo on the family lives of our people. The provision of systems to capture this information from a widely dispersed and highly mobile population is a difficult task and there are competing demands for the technical resources required. We have made a substantial investment in the development of this capability, and its coverage will be extended to all parts of the services as soon as it is practicable.

Since 1997, the RAF has provided a facility for its personnel to record periods of separation of three days or longer. The naval service commenced recording separation on a daily basis for the majority of its personnel in September this year. The Army conducted trials of a recording system in some of its units earlier this year and intends to implement a universal recording system as soon as the technical modifications to its personnel information systems can be made.

The frequency and duration of separation varies very widely between the armed services, and people joining their chosen service do so with appropriate expectations. While this information is of great importance to the services in managing their people, it is in no way a benchmark for comparison with any other type of employment or even for comparison within the services. We do not believe it would be helpful to produce aggregated statistics for the amount of separated service undertaken by each individual.

Although separated service can be a strain on service families, it should not be seen as a wholly negative factor. The prospect of overseas deployment is a very powerful attraction to potential recruits and the vast majority of service personnel relish the opportunity to put their skills to use on operations and exercises.