Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) trained workforce requirement and (b) weapon inventory of support weapons for an army reserve infantry battalion was in January 2022; and what it is planned to be in the future, listed by category (i) anti-tank weapons, (ii) mortars, (iii) machine guns, (iv) assault pioneers.

In January 2022, the workforce requirement varied for each of the Army Reserve infantry battalions. Under Future Soldier, structures will be standardised to mitigate such variations and bring coherence. All Army Reserve infantry battalions will therefore adopt a common structure based on either a three or four sub-unit model in the future.

Whilst there are changes under Future Soldier, the requirement for each Army Reserve infantry battalion to provide a support weapons capability will endure, to deliver reinforcement to the Army's regular battalions for warfighting.

As with Regular Army battalions, I am withholding a breakdown of both the workforce requirement and weapon inventory as disclosure would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the British Army.