My honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Bill Rammell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

With the expiry of the call-out order made on 11 November 2008, a new order has been made under Section 54 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 to enable reservists to continue to be called out into service to support operations in Afghanistan. The new order is effective until 10 November 2010. Reservists continue to make a valuable contribution to operations in that country and some 1,200 reservists are currently called out and serving, of whom 650 are deployed in theatre. The remainder are preparing for, or recovering from, operations.