Mr. Neil Richardson:

We maintain that the age cap should remain at 35. I agree that there can be qualified professionals in their early 20s, and with extra time one can have people with ten, 15 or 20 years experience in a particular field. The Civil Defence recruits up to the age of 60. While the argument could be made that at the age of 33 or 34 these people are starting to be past their physical best and should, therefore, not be taken into the RDF, it is down to their personal fitness. We would be missing a trick by lowering the age profile from 35 to 25. There are plenty of applicants to the RDF in the 25 to 35 year age bracket who have extra life experience and can bring more to the table than the person aged 18 to 20. We want to get a mix of members in the Reserve, and this is what makes the force as strong as it is. We are against lowering the age limit from 35 to 25, given that we would miss out on many highly skilled professionals by doing it, which would worry the RDFRA.