Kevan Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what planning data was used to devise his Department’s recruitment target for the Army Reserve as part of its Army 2020 reforms.

Anna Soubry

The term “recruitment target” has been interpreted as the 30,000 trained Army Reservists required under Army 2020.

During the Three Month Exercise, the Ministry Of Defence examined a range of Force Structure options which were assessed as being able to deliver the policy demand specified by the new Defence Planning Assumptions laid out in Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010. As a result of this, a Senior Military Judgement Panel chaired by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff and including the Assistant Chiefs of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force concluded that the size of the Regular Army should be 82,500, and the Independent Commission to Review the United Kingdom’s Reserve Forces recommended an Army Reserve of 30,000 trained personnel. This was judged to be the optimal size and shape of the Army within available resources.