§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the planned average number of whole-time equivalent service and civilian persons employed by the Ministry of Defence in each of the next three years. [HL283]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)I refer the noble Lord to the Ministry of Defence reportThe Government's Expenditure Plans 2004–05—2005–06, copies of which are in the Library of the House. Table five of the report, on page 23, sets out the number of military staff currently employed within the Ministry of Defence and projected figures for the years 2004–05 and 2005–2006.
The MoD has not produced civilian manpower forecasts since introducing the new definition of civilian manpower at the end of July 2004. Forecasts of civilian staff numbers against the previous definition are also included in table five of the The Government's Expenditure Plans 2004–05—2005–06.
The White Paper published in July 2004, Delivering Security in a Changing World, sets out in paragraph 3.6, on page 12, the levels of manpower reductions that are expected and gives an indication of future manpower numbers within the Ministry of Defence. Details on how these reductions will be achieved for the RAF, including a redundancy package, were announced by my right honourable friend the Minister of State for Armed Forces on 9 December 2004 in another place and the requirement for limited redundancy in the Army by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence on 16 December 2004 in another place. However, further work is required before exact details of the planned drawdowns are finalised. This work is being carried out as part of the department's normal annual planning process which is currently under-way.