Reserve Forces (Hansard, 12 June 2002)

§ Lord Bach

The work to date on the New Chapter to the Strategic Defence Review indicates that there is scope for an additional role for the Reserves in home defence and security tasks, which would draw on their strengths and skills in the response to a crisis and which the Reserves would themselves welcome. To explain our concept and to seek views upon it, the Ministry of Defence has today issued a discussion document entitledThe Role of the Reserves in Home 38WA Defence and Security. Copies of the document have been placed in the Library of the House. It makes proposals for providing a significant enhancement to the support which the department and the Armed Forces can provide to the civil authorities in such circumstances in three areas:

by the formation of reaction forces on a regional basis, comprising an average of 500 Reserve personnel who volunteer for the role and who would be available to be deployed in a crisis;

by formalising the role of 2 Signals Brigade, and its predominantly Territorial Army subordinate units, in supporting those personnel deploying in response to a crisis, and enhancing its communications equipment accordingly;

by using Reserve personnel to improve our contingency planning, and the machinery by which the civil authorities can gain access to support from the Armed Forces in a crisis.

This is a significant development for our Reserve Forces, and an important new challenge for them. We will take account of the views of the Reserves and their employers on the discussion document in finalising our proposals. At that stage, we will also take a final view on the implications for the size and shape of our Reserves forces.