I am enclosing a copy of the MoD Votes 1999-2000 Supplementary Votes which are being laid before the House today.

  As the Committee knows, Votes A provide the formal mechanism by which Parliament maintains control over the maximum numbers of personnel retained for service in the Armed Forces. The Votes form part of the Parliamentary Supply process and are presented to the House by the Secretary of State for Defence shortly before the start of each financial year.

  Our monitoring of actual numbers established that the figure of 41,200 which appeared in the main Votes A as the maximum TA strength as at 1 April 1999 was substantially incorrect. The actual strength was 51,820. The Supplementary Votes A correct this by providing for an increase of 1,995 officers and 8,625 other ranks in the number of TA personnel authorised. The figure of 41,200 was actually the April 2000 TA restructuring target. (It was subsequently revised to 42,615 at the request of the NAO, in order to accommodate the inclusion of previously omitted TA non-regular permanent staff). In accordance with the Strategic Defence Review, TA numbers are being reduced in two phases. Phase 1 was achieved in July 1999 and Phase 2 is on target to be successfully concluded by April 2000. The Supplementary Votes A are necessary to give Parliamentary authority for the number present at 1 April 1999.

18 November 1999