Flooding: Military Deployment

Lord Selkirk of Douglas Excerpts

Monday 24th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, the department received its first request for assistance on 29 January and had deployed the requested support by the following morning. As the weather continued to deteriorate, defence became increasingly involved in providing support to local authorities.

[Lord Selkirk of Douglas (Con)]

Can the Minister confirm that the contribution made by reservists to flood relief was in this case substantial?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

Yes, I can assure my noble friend that that is the case. The average number of reservists employed in mid-February, at the peak of the crisis, was around 80 per day. In most cases reservists were employed on man training days—the payment method used for routine reservist activity—although there were a small number of formal mobilisations, namely of signallers and engineers. I managed to visit some of the reservists who helped with the flood work, both infantry and engineers, who told me that they were very well received by the public for the work that they did.