PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

May 08. Parliament: Whitsun Recess. Parliament rose on Thu 22 May and is to return on Mon 2 Jun 08. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0821, 26 May 08)

May 08. Reserve Forces: House of Lords Debate. Lord Freeman, a former Defence Minister, initiated a Debate (22 May 08) on the (Volunteer) Reserves. Nearly 6.5% of the Army’s deployed personnel on current Operations are from the Reserves. 17,000 Reservists have been mobilised in the past 10 years, of whom 12 have been killed in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Comment: A Review of the Reserve Forces is taking place, to examine how they should “be configured, structured, equipped, located and trained”. The above debate is recorded in Hansard for 22 May 08 starting in Column 1587, with the Minister’s closing speech starting in Column 1628. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0821, 26 May 08)

House of Commons Written Answers for 22 May 2008

DEFENCE

Defence: Procurement

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much funding was allocated to the armed forces for expenditure on equipment in each year since 1997. [205765]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Outturn expenditure on the procurement of equipment (including both military and non-military equipment used by Service and civilian personnel) from 1997-98 has been published annually in UK Defence Statistics (UKDS) by the Defence Analytical Services Agency. UKDS can be found at: www.dasa.mod.uk and are available in the Library of the House.However, data is not consistent across this period because of internal changes in responsibility for Defence equipment procurement and the introduction of Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB). Figures were produced on a cash basis until 2000-01. Full implementation of these accounting changes meant it was not possible to produce figures for the period 2001-02 to 2002-03 that were consistent for these years since the full adoption of RAB across the Department was not completed until 2003-04. A new data series using full RAB accounting has been produced annually since 2003-04. Outturn figures for 2007-08 will be published in UKDS 2008 later in the year.

Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Government plans to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan. [206717]

Des Browne: We keep the size and scale of the UK military commitment to Afghanistan under regular review and will make further adjustments where necessary, as we have in the past.