Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of recognising the Royal Observation Corps as having served as a (a) regular and (b) reserve for the armed forces.

The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was formed by a Royal Warrant on 21 May 1947; this Warrant was re-issued by Her Late Majesty The Queen several times, most recently in July 1966. The Warrant laid down that, while the Defence Council would be responsible for the ROC’s organisation, training, financing and conditions of service, amongst other elements, for operational control it came under the Home Office.

This was reflected in the ROC’s own Regulations which stated that it was a uniformed civilian organisation, subject to the provision of the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) civilian pay, staff and travel regulations. In addition, the regulations stated that the Commandant ROC was responsible to the Home Office for its operations, and to the MOD for administrative matters with direct access to the Assistant Under-Secretary Civilian Management (Administrators).

From this, it is very clear the ROC was a civilian, and not a military, organisation, which, even when interacting with the MOD, was treated on the same terms as Civil Servants rather than Service Personnel. For that reason, the MOD does not believe there is any rationale which would justify the retrospective recategorisation of past members of the ROC (or any other civilian defence organisation) as having been Regular or Reserve members of the Armed Forces. However, this in no way diminishes the Government’s admiration of those who performed such a vital role during the Cold War.