My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Bob Ainsworth) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

A new call-out order has been made under Section 56 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 to enable members of the reserve forces to continue to be called out into permanent service and deployed to Cyprus as part of the UK’s contribution to the United Nations Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP). Currently some 35 reservists are deployed as part of 7 Transport Regiment RLC, which will be followed with a deployment of over 250 reservists in October. The call-out order has effect until 30 April 2009.