HC Deb 16 September 2004 vol 424 cc1767-8WS
Mr. Gerald Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of(a) Royal Navy and Royal Marines, (b) Army and (c) Royal Air Force trained strength was deployed on operations and other military tasks for (i) the final quarter of financial year 2003–04 and (ii) the first two quarters of financial year 200–05. [188463]

Mr. Ingram

Information on trained strength deployed on Operations and other Military Tasks is produced quarterly, in arrears, as part of the Ministry of Defence's assessment of performance against Spending Review 2002 Public Service Agreement targets. It is published on the MOD website (www.mod.uk) following review by the Defence Management Board, and on the Treasury Public Service Performance Reporting website (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/performance/MOD.cfm). Quarter 4 data for 2003–04 (January to March 2004) is given in the table (and is available on the MOD and HMT websites):

Percentage of trained strength deployed on operations and other

military tasks

2003–04
Q4
Navy/Marines 17.7
Army 22.6
RAF 12.1
Note:
Percentages exclude those either preparing for, or recovering from, deployments and are quarterly averages. A list of Military Tasks can be found on the Department's website (http://www.mod.uk).

Quarter 1 data for 2004–05 (April to June 2004) is currently being collected, and will be published at the end of September. We expect to publish Quarter 2 data for 2004–05 (July to September 2004) at the end of November.