Mr. Neil Richardson:

Security duty allowance is actually separate from military service allowance. They are two different allowances. We will do security duties alongside members of the Permanent Defence Force. A reservist comes into a barracks, they are on guard for 24 hours and they then finish their guard duty. A Permanent Defence Force member doing that 24 hour guard duty will receive a security duty allowance at a particular rate, which is dependent on the day of the week and a couple of other factors. The reservist does not get that at present. The security duty allowance budget for the year is covered under a particular subhead and it is a known quantity because we know that ten officers or ten sergeants etc. will be on duty across the country every day. That should be a known, quantifiable figure. If the Permanent Defence Force sergeant is not doing the duty and is not fulfilling that role and a reservist sergeant comes in, that duty money put aside in the budget does not get paid to the reservist individual so it is just returned. However, the budget is there and the allocation is set aside so we are not seeking additional budgetary allocation for that. We are just seeking to be allowed to be paid from the existing subhead.