§ Lord Redesdaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
What percentage of the 6,000 strong reaction force, as outlined in the Ministry of Defence discussion document The Role of the Reserves in Home Defence and Security, they envisage will come from existing members of the Territorial Army. [HL5121]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)We envisage that the Territorial Army would provide the command, control and administrative framework for the proposed reaction forces. But members from all the176WA volunteer reserve forces may elect to serve in them. The contribution from each of the reserve forces will not be known until the consultation process now under way is complete and individuals from each of the volunteer reserve forces have elected to be members of the reaction force. Those individuals would remain members of their parent units and train as normal for their current roles but would be earmarked as being available for the reaction force if required.
§ Lord Redesdaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
To what extent there was consultation between the Ministry of Defence and the Territorial Army in formulating proposals for a reaction force as outlined in the recent discussion document The Role of the Reserves in Home Defence and Security. [HL5122]
§ Lord BachOfficers from the volunteer reserves, some of whom have permanent posts within the Ministry of Defence in London, were closely involved in the production of the reaction force proposal, as set out in the discussion document we published in June. The consultation process now under way with the reserves, their employers and other interested parties seeks to gain the views of the wider reserves community.