§ Lord Eamesasked Her Majesty's Government:
To what extent the recently announced changes to the structures of the Armed Forces will affect the deployment of Army, Navy and Air Force units in Northern Ireland. [HL4055]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)Military force levels in Northern Ireland are dependent on the prevailing security environment. As the environment improves we expect the requirement for forces assigned to support the police to decline. Accordingly, in the past six months we have been able to transfer four battalions from the command of the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland to Commander in Chief LAND.