Ms Jo McCarthy:

I will answer that. For example, there was the recruitment campaign over the last 18 months. In any good job or with any good employee, the good people are always asked to do more. What has been happening with the reservists is that the good people are being asked again and again to operate fully onto their full-time jobs, caring for their families and trying to take care of everything.

Last year, it was fantastic that we got so many recruits in. The recruit liaison officers have to do a huge amount of work. They have to organise the fitness test. That means they have to reach out to everybody individually. It is not a block email or anything like that, given GDPR. When recruits pass the fitness test, the recruit liaison officers have to look into holding interview boards. An interview board has to have two NCOs and an officer. Those interviews have to take place when those people are actually available. That is only part of that process. Thankfully, the massive load of work that these people have been doing over the last year was paid for. They were happy about it despite it not being massive money or anything but now that is gone. We have been trying, with great difficulty, to hold on to these really good people for the past number of years and this is just such a blow to all of them. That is why we are here today.