British Army soldiers will today be notified if they have been selected for redundancy in this second tranche of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme, with notifications being made face-to-face or by telephone.
Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards has issued a statement to all Service Personnel regarding the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme second tranche notifications.
For many, selection will be a result of their own choice to apply for consideration to be made redundant. For others it will be unwelcome. All of those who are made redundant face significant changes, both for themselves and for their families.
Personnel who will be returning to civilian life through redundancy will receive full support from their Chain of Command, along with a comprehensive resettlement package to aid their transition.
Applicants will serve up to six months’ notice before leaving the Armed Forces while non-applicants will serve up to 12 months’ notice. Those who wish to leave earlier can ask their Service.
Those selected for redundancy, and who meet the selection criteria, will have the opportunity to apply to shortage area categories.
This will be the last major tranche of redundancies for the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:
"Of course I regret that it has been necessary to make redundancies to deliver our plans for reducing the size of the Armed Forces. We inherited a multi-billion-pound black hole in the Defence Budget.
"We've now brought the Defence Budget back into balance for the first time in a generation. We will have smaller Armed Forces but we will ensure they will have the protection and equipment they need.
"The Royal Navy and RAF redundancy figures are smaller than anticipated due to the MOD's ability to use other measures such as slowing recruitment. No further significant reductions are expected for the Royal Navy or RAF.
"We still have some way to go to bring the size of the Army down to 82,000 and decisions on what is necessary to achieve this are yet to be taken, but we won't compromise the mission in Afghanistan."
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