§ Lord Clinton-Davisasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans the Ministry of Defence has for a further call-out of the reserve forces. [HL3188]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)In order to sustain military operations against terrorism, up to 49 members of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force will be called out compulsorily next month under the call-out order made on 11 October 2001 and Section 54 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996. The majority of those called out will undertake aircraft movements duties at the air transport main operating bases in the UK.
In addition, a new call-out order has been made under Section 56 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 to enable reservists to continue to be called out to support operations in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This took effect from 2 March 2002, the date the previous order expired. Only reservists who volunteer will be called out under this order.
We continue to call out members of the reserve forces to support operations in the Balkans and the no-fly zones in the region of Iraq. Overall they make a very valuable contribution to our operational requirements.