Dear Sir or Madam,

To ask whether or not the Ministry of Defence has made an inquiry
into replacing the current British Rifle with one capable of being
fired left handed?

Further to this I would like to know how many Light Support Weapons
have been taken from Army Cadet Force Regiments to be handed back
to the British Army.

Finally what additional payments (if any) are made to British
Soldiers who complete a tour of duty?

I would be thankful for any of the information you have freely
available and thank you for your time. Yours faithfully,

Alastair Manderson

Mr Manderson

I am working on your FOI request. Grateful if you could just clarify
your third question as there are several definitions of tour. My
assumption was information relating to an operational tour - such as in
Iraq or Afghanistan but I may be incorrect with this. Please clarify
asap.

Thanks

DES Sec Pol Sec JSC 1b

AN400/G/Zone 4

Dear Andrews, Chris Mrs

You are correct I was refering to an operational tour in Iraq for
example. I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused you

Yours sincerely,

Alastair Manderson

Ref: 27-05-2008-073025-007

Dear Mr Manderson

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your e mail of 24 May 2008 requesting information about rifles and the Army Cadet Force. Your correspondence has been considered to be a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Question 1:

Has the Ministry of Defence made an enquiry into replacing the current British Rifle with one capable of being fired left handed?

The SA80 family of weapons, including the SA80-A2 Individual Weapon or Rifle 5.56mm cannot be fired left handed. The SA80 will remain in service until 2020 and there are no plans to investigate a left handed variant in this time frame.

Question 2:

How many Light Support weapons (LSW) have been taken from Army Cadet Force Regiments to be handed back to the British Army?

900 LSWs (the entire stock of the ACF Regiments) were taken for refurbishment by the Army in 2002.

Question 3:

What additional payments are made to British Soldiers who complete a tour of duty in Iraq for example?

Additional entitlements for an Operational Tour to Iraq are as follows:

1. Operational Allowance. A tax-free allowance of £2,380 for a 6-month operational tour, or pro-rata payment of £13.08 per day.

2. Council Tax relief. This equates to £140 for a 6-month tour.

3. In addition, personnel on a 6 month tour will also accrue Longer Separation Allowance (LSA). While LSA is not tied to Operational Tours in the way that Operational Allowance and Council Tax relief are, it is nonetheless an additional entitlement that will be paid to personnel in Iraq if they are separate from 'home' for periods in excess of 10 days; thus, those on operational tour will receive LSA for the full 6 months of their tour. LSA is taxable, and is paid on an incremental scale, depending on the length of separation experienced through their career. There are 14 increments, ranging from £6.38 to £26.94 per day, although the majority of personnel currently claiming are on increment Level 1 (£6.38 taxable per day) or Level 2 (£9.97 taxable per day).

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by the Ministry of Defence will have been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright from the Office of Public Sector Information at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm

Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non Crown Copyright) information.

If you are unhappy with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by contacting the Director of Information Exploitation, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end.

If you remain unhappy following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate the case until the internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk <http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/> ."

I hope this helpful.

Yours sincerely

DE&S POL SEC JSC

Ministry of Defence