Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the definition is of a (a) basic and (b) specialist user in the context of the tactical hearing protection system.

The Tactical Hearing Protection System programme defines the Basic User (BU) requirement as those British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Marine and Royal Air Force personnel who need hearing protection for the full range of military tasks, including basic weapon handling and firing, but have a lesser requirement for situational awareness. They are unlikely to be in close proximity to the firing of support weaponry. The BU requirement applies to most Combat Support and Combat Service Support personnel and is used as a backup for the Dismounted Close Combat (DCC) user.

The DCC user is defined as those combat arms personnel who are or could be routinely exposed to high rates of fire, at close range, from a variety of weapons, such as small arms, medium- or heavy-calibre weapons including grenades, hand-held missiles and missile launchers. They have a requirement for continuous situational awareness in all environments.

The Specialist User (SU) is also a combat arms soldier, but differs from the DCC user in that the weapon systems they use, such as mortars, heavy machine guns, snipers, and anti-structures munitions, are so loud that single-layer protection will not suffice. The SU requires dual-layer protection and accepts that situational awareness may have to be reduced.