Lady Lady Hermon (North Down, UUP)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether Territorial Army soldiers who have not signed for service under the Reserve Forces Act 1996 are liable for mobilisation.

Dr Lewis Moonie (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Kirkcaldy, Labour/Co-operative)

All members of the Territorial Army may be called out when a call-out order made under the Reserve Forces Act 1996 is in force. However, it is Ministry of Defence policy that members of the Territorial Army whose reserve liabilities predate the Reserve Forces Act 1996 are only called out if they had a liability under a corresponding power in the Reserve Forces Act 1980 unless they voluntarily elected to assume the liabilities of the 1996 Act.

Five call-out orders are currently in force. Of these, three were made under Section 54 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 and two were made under Section 56 of that Act. The corresponding power to Section 54 was Section of the 11 Reserve Forces Act 1980. The majority of members of the Territorial Army had a liability under that section and are therefore liable to be called out. However, there is no call-out power in the 1980 Act which corresponds to section 56 of the 1996 Act. Therefore reservists whose liabilities predate the Reserve Forces Act 1996 and who did not voluntarily elect to assume the liabilities under that Act are not called out under that section.