Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether a pension was provided to (a) full and (b) part-time members of the Ulster Defence Regiment who latterly served in the Home Battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment.

Full time members of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) had an automatic entitlement to become members of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme. Part-time members of the UDR were engaged under different terms to the full time regular members of the Regiment. These terms were similar to those of the Territorial Army and reflected that part-time engagements were often on an irregular, intermittent and short-term basis.Part-time membersof the UDR were not members of an Armed Forces Pension Scheme.

There are no plans to review the pension entitlement for former members of the Ulster Defence Regiment.