Further notices are to be issued to reservists for possible operations against Iraq, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has announced.

In a written statement to the House of Commons, Mr Hoon said that the process of calling out and mobilising reservists is already well under way – by January 24 2,063 notices had been issued.

According to the statement, Mr Hoon said: “As I explained in my statement on January 7, the number of notices issued has to be significantly larger than the number of reservists required, to allow for the proportion who are likely to be genuinely unavailable.

“Further contingency planning has now clarified the likely size and shape of our additional requirements, in particular in the light of the decision we reached recently on the size and composition of land forces that we plan to deploy...
“Our latest assessment is that our overall requirement for reservists is likely to be up to 6,000, including those currently in the process of mobilisation.

“We will now issue further call-out notices over the coming weeks to enable us to meet this requirement.

“The size of the requirement will remain under review as our planning continues.”