To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what proportion of posts in his Department were recategorised from back office to frontline posts as classified by the Gershon efficiency review in each year since 2004. (172251)

The Ministry of Defence is committed to achieving work force reductions of 10,000 civilians and 5,000 military administrative and support posts by the end of 2007-08. These are net targets and no posts will be reallocated to the frontline as part of them.