Downing Street Says » Territorial Army

» Monday, October 26, 2009

Territorial Army

Asked about Bill Rammell’s statement on Territorial Army provisions, the PMS said the Prime Minister had responded in writing to the Leader of the Opposition’s query about Territorial Army members deployed in Afghanistan. The PMS said Mr Rammell had restated the Government’s position that all parts of our armed forces are looking at operational efficiencies. Mr Rammell said that all Territorial Army personnel would now receive at least one training night per month in this financial year, this measure reduces the in-year savings by 2.5 million pounds, the initial proposal was to suspend the remainder of non-deployment tier training this financial year with a saving of 20million. The PMS directed assembled press to the Minister’s statement that as a Government we do listen, therefore the Secretary of State has decided on a smaller adjustment to ensure continuity for those not immediately deploying to Afghanistan and to help retention .

Asked if the Prime Minister thought these measures were enough, the PMS replied that it was a matter of what the Secretary of State had decided and reported to the House. The Prime Minister shared the Secretary of State’s view that the Territorial Army makes a vital contribution to keeping our country safe, over 3bn had been drawn from the Treasury reserve to support operations this year, nevertheless all budgets were under operational review and there was a need to re-prioritise the core defence budget.

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