5,300 soldiers to be made redundant (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

5,300 soldiers to be made redundant

11:02am Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013

Up to 5,300 soldiers are to be made redundant from the Army in the summer as part of the latest round of cuts to the armed forces, the Government has announced.

Redundancy notices will be issued on June 18. Any personnel preparing for, serving on, or recovering from operations on that date will not lose their jobs unless they have applied for redundancy.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said a further tranche of job losses among Royal Navy and RAF medical and dental personnel, as well as additional Army redundancies, is also "likely".

The redundancies form part of the cuts announced in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, which will see the regular Army reduced to 82,000 by 2020.

The latest, third round of job losses will be the biggest so far. The first tranche in September 2011 saw 2,860 forces personnel made redundant, the second in June 2012 involved 3,760. In both previous rounds a large majority had applied for selection.

Despite reports that those preparing for service in Afghanistan may not be exempt in the latest tranche, Mr Francois confirmed that such personnel would again not be made compulsorily redundant.

"The redundancy programme will not impact adversely on current operations in Afghanistan, and no-one who is serving on specified operations on the day the redundancy notices are issued on June 18 2013 will be made redundant unless they are applicants," Defence Minister Mark Francois said. "Similarly, those preparing for, or recovering from such operations on the day the redundancy notices are issued will not be made redundant unless they have applied."

A further tranche of redundancies is likely to include soldiers exempt from redundancy in this latest round, to ensure the process is "as fair as possible", the MoD said.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "The Army is actively managing recruitment to reach the target numbers, but unfortunately redundancies are unavoidable due to the size of the defence deficit that this Government inherited and the consequent scale of downsizing required in the Army. We will have smaller armed forces but they will in future be properly equipped and well funded, unlike before. These redundancies will not affect current operations in Afghanistan, where our armed forces continue to fight so bravely on this country's behalf."

Chief of the General Staff General Sir Peter Wall said the redundancies were essential in reducing the Army to 82,000. "I fully recognise the unwelcome uncertainty and pressure for those who will be liable in the employment fields announced today," he said. "For some it may present an opportunity; for others it will curtail their service prematurely. Our aim now is to apply the process as fairly as possible and to prepare to support those individuals who are selected as they and their families transition to civilian life."

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence(Ministry of Defence)