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Urgent question on armed forces redundancies

22 January 2013

Image of UK Parliament portcullis

Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Jim Murphy, asked an urgent question in the House of Commons on Tuesday 22 January 2013, on the news of armed forces redundancies

Minister of State for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, at the Ministry of Defence, Mark Francois, responded on behalf of the Government.

Armed Forces Redundancy Programme

The Government announced the process and outline timetable for the armed forces redundancy programme on 1 March 2011.

The announcement on 22 January 2013 represents the start of the third tranche of that programme, consisting of up to 5,300 personnel from the Army.

Announcements about who has been selected will be made on 18 June 2013.

Urgent questions

At times MPs may want to put an urgent question to a Minister. If a matter of public importance has arisen, which an MP believes requires an immediate answer from a government minister, they may apply to the Speaker to put forward such a question.

The relevant government department would be informed at once.
If the Speaker agrees, the question will be asked after that day’s Question Time.

Once the MP has asked the main question, they are allowed to ask a supplementary question. Other MPs will then be called to ask further questions on the same subject