asked Her Majesty's Government:If no soldier were required to serve more than one six-month emergency tour in each 24-month period, how many soldiers would now be available for deployment. [HL516]

We do not hold the information requested centrally.We concluded during the Strategic Defence Review that, for the Army, six-month operational tours and an average interval between tours of 24 months are optimum for operational effectiveness and retention. The current average unit tour interval in the Army is around 28 months.In addition, some 21 per cent of the trained Army is currently committed to operations. This figure includes units preparing for, deployed on and recovering from operations. Within this, 15 per cent of the trained Army is currently deployed on operations.