To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the statement of 23 January 2014, Official Report, column 461, on armed forces' restructuring, how many eligible Gurkhas have applied for compulsory redundancy under the fourth tranche of redundancies to date; what estimate he has made of the proportion of compulsory redundancies among Gurkhas which will be filled by voluntary applications; and if he will make a statement.

Applications for armed forces redundancy do not close until 6 March 2014. A selection process will follow and those selected for redundancy will be notified on 12 June 2014.

As the Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend Mr Hammond, said in the House on 23 January 2014, Hansard, column 461, Gurkhas traditionally do not volunteer for redundancy, and we expect the overall percentage of volunteers to be lower in this final round of redundancies than it has been previously.