Skip to main content

Armed Forces: Merseyside

Volume 508: debated on Monday 22 March 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much funding has been allocated to (a) cadet forces and (b) the Territorial Army on Merseyside in 2009-10. (322633)

The information is not held centrally.

Funding for the cadet forces in any particular area comes from a wide variety of sources including the single services, the use of subsidised accommodation, and local donations and fundraising efforts. To determine how much funding has been allocated to a specific unit would require a manual search of records and incur disproportionate cost.

Territorial Army (TA) funding is provided not only through the Army but also from different sources dependent on how the infrastructure is shared. For example, funding may be generated by allowing another organisation, such as the Air Training Corps or Sea Cadets, to use the facility when not required for TA activity. This allows for the most efficient use of resources. To determine how much funding has been provided to Merseyside would require the manual search of records ranging from local agreements through to more formal arrangements with the single services, thus incurring disproportionate cost.

The Government remain committed to the TA and the cadet forces. The TA continues to play a vital role in support of the Regular Army, not least on operations in Afghanistan. The Cadet Organisation dates back 150 years. It is one of the oldest and most successful voluntary youth organisations in the world. Today it numbers 131,000 young people, led by 25,000 adult volunteers, in well over 3,000 sites across the country.