HC Deb 20 November 2003 vol 413 c1253W
Mr. Keith Simpson

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which(a) Infantry, (b) Royal Artillery, (c) Royal Armoured Corps, (d) Royal Engineers and (e) Royal Signals units have had less than 12 months between tour intervals in the past five years. [140219]

Mr. Ingram

I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Mr. Jenkin

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the present average tour interval is for infantry regiments in the Army. [137727]

Mr. Ingram

[holding answer 10 November 2003]: The Army's Harmony guidelines recommend a tour interval of 24 months between each six month operational tour for Army battalions, which equates to one tour in each 30 month period. Between first May 2001 and 31 October 2003 infantry battalions undertook an average of about 1.3 tours. This is primarily the result of the Army's commitments on Operation Telic in Iraq and we therefore expect the situation to improve as commitments reduce.