DATA

  1.  In your letter of 7 July you posed a number of questions on overstretch. The information requested is set out in Annexes A to F, dealing with each question in a separate Annex. Supplementary detail is included as appendices to the relevant annex. You will note that some of the information is classified. Mostly this is limited to clearly defined sections as **, but you will see that some of the Annexes/Appendices are classified in entirety.[10] There is also some information which it is not possible to pass to you due to it's classification and this has been marked on the relevant appendix.

LIMITATIONS

  2.  Reflecting the Committee's wish to establish the current position on overstretch, and to try to simplify what was inevitably a complex and highly detailed information gathering exercise, a base line date of 1 July 1999 has been used. The time taken in gathering the data has permitted the insertion of some post-1 July information for the Army, to give as rounded an account of the current position as possible.

  3.  The major difficulties with data of this level of detail are:

—  Service-wide averages: the detailed information on individual units set out in the Annexes to the answers reveals a wide span of individual circumstances. The narrative of the answers is designed as far as possible to relate the general to the particular.

—  The systems used to record the data vary greatly between the Services and there is therefore some unevenness of data within the answers to each question. This is a reflection of the different structures and operational postures of each Service.

REMEDIAL MEASURES

  4.  The obvious way to minimise overstretch is to withdraw personnel from operations at the earliest opportunity. Thus we have recently announced that 900 personnel are to be withdrawn from Bosnia.

  5.  A number of other measures are being taken to mitigate the impact of the present level of overstretch upon Service personnel. Included are a number of improvements to the operational welfare package, for example; free telephone calls home, "electronic blueys" being trialled, and wider access to the Internet as terminals are being installed on ships, and at units and family centres around the country for personal communication. There is now a guaranteed period of post operational tour leave for those returning from operations, and recent enhancements to the families' concessionary travel scheme give the families of personnel deployed on operations from an overseas base a wider range of choice when planning their return to the UK.

  6.  I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you require any further information or clarification.

18 November 1999