Mr. Neil Richardson:

That is no trouble. It takes approximately 26 days to train a reservist to the minimum level. It takes 26 days to train a person who is a recruit to a two star private level. It takes another 26 days to get them to what is called a three star private. At that point, they are considered a fully trained reservist and they can go for a whole raft of other courses. The key point to make is that our minimum training requirement annually equates to approximately 12 days in terms of hours. That is the bare minimum a reservist needs to do but a vast majority of reservists will partake in an awful lot more training, courses or duties, as we discussed earlier. The average is approximately 50 and sometimes 80 days for particularly active reservists. At that point, it is really about how much a reservist is able to commit but the minimum requirement is approximately 12 days per annum, with 26 days to get trained in the first instance.

We note the White Paper on Defence produced back in 2015 only allocated seven paid days per annum to every member of the Reserve. That is where the budget came from or started in 2015. However, the initial entrance course is 26 days and under the White Paper, we were allocated seven paid days each. It does not even cover basic training. The fact our numbers are beneath our overall establishment meant there was a funding allocation for other activities but if we had a 4,000 full-strength Reserve, the budget technically only covers seven paid days per annum and it takes 26 days to become a reservist.