Proposed Changes
10 March 2005

The Council of Scottish Colonels will recommend to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon that the amalgamation should take place on St Andrew's day 2005. This is some thirteen months earlier than originally planned.

It is reported that these latest plans were revealed in a leaked memo from a member of the Council of Colonels.

Major General Mark Strudwick, the Royal Scots' regimental Colonel, is reported to have said, "It has been agreed that we should form the new regiment as early as possible. To that end, the Council of Scottish Colonels has decided that formation day should not be later than 1st January 2006."

The Memo, dated 24th February 2005, also said that a vesting day would be organised before 1st January 2007, when Scotland's six regular battalions would become five.

However, a senior military source revealed that both ceremonies are likely to be joined for one formal event. He said, "It is widely known that the Council will recommend that the amalgamation should take place in November 2005, on St Andrew's Day."

Later, an Army spokeswoman is reported to have said, "The only date set in concrete is that it must take place by January 1st 2007."