Armed Forces: Redundancy
Defence

Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence

(1) whether he proposes that any personnel who have served or are serving in Afghanistan will be made redundant as a result of his planned Army restructuring;

(2) whether he is taking steps to support those who have served or are serving in Afghanistan during his Army restructuring;

(3) if he will make it his policy that personnel who are serving or who have served in Afghanistan will be protected from redundancy resulting from his Army restructuring.

Andrew Robathan (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans), Defence; South Leicestershire, Conservative)

Policy for Army redundancy states that those personnel who are deployed on combat operations that qualify for the operational allowance; are within six months of an operational allowance earning deployment; or are on their post operational leave at the time of notification of selection, may only be made redundant if they apply. We will continue to keep this policy under review with regard to any future redundancies.

All Army personnel will be supported through the Army restructuring process, whether they are serving or have served in Afghanistan or not. An extensive communications plan that will inform personnel of the outcomes of the restructuring process will be implemented at the appropriate time.