Member

Of course, the Reserve Forces are funded through uncommitted spend. Therefore, every year, they are potentially subject to in-year savings. This is very complicated and difficult. It means that, although we say to an Army reservist, “We want you to come and do this staff job. We want you to commit to 120 days per year and reorganise your civilian career so that you can come and make your contribution. This is how many days you have to commit”, historically, through successive Governments, we have then turned around and said to them, “I’m very sorry but, because your funding is uncommitted, we’re going to have to cut the funding and you won’t be able to do as many days as you can do”. It will come as no surprise to anybody that, when it comes to retention, this is a major problem.