§ Lord Hardy of Wathasked Her Majesty's Government:
What arrangements are in place to allow reservists to continue to be called out to support operations in the former Yugoslavia. [HL2365]
119WA
§ Lord BachA new call-out order has been made under section 56 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 to allow reservists to continue to be called out into permanent service to support operations in the former Yugoslavia. This replaces the existing order that expired on 31 March. The new order is effective until 31 March 2004.
Since 1995 when NATO operations commenced in the former Yugoslavia, the reserve forces have historically provided around 10 per cent of the total UK manpower in theatre. At present, there are around 230 reservists from all three services serving in Bosnia and Kosovo. They are providing specialist skills in fields such as logistics, signals and medical support.
I am also announcing two compulsory mobilisations under the new order. One is an extension of the existing deployment of small numbers of specialist medical personnel (anaesthetists and surgeons) to provide critical support to our forces in theatre. Since April 2002, we have called out 17 personnel to serve three-month tours. This will continue for another 12 months. We anticipate a requirement for around six personnel at any one time. Given the small numbers involved and our intention to spread the burden across the NHS, we are confident that the impact on patients in the UK will be minimal.
The second compulsory mobilisation will be of further specialist medical and logistics personnel from the Territorial Army. They will provide general practice, ambulance, and postal and courier capabilities in theatre. In total, we will call out 150 personnel from 251 and 253 Field Ambulance (Volunteers) and up to 20 personnel from 87 and 88 Regiments Postal and Courier Services. Personnel will serve for up to seven months, with the first deployments in June.