Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of volunteer hours put in by non-executive board members and the wider membership of the Reserve Forces and Cadet Associations.

The Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association (RFCA) is a centrally coordinated national body that delivers its outputs locally, by local people, to support the sustainment and generation of Reserve Forces. The RFCA and the 13 Regional RFCAs purposefully sit outside of the Chains of Command (as an Arm’s Length Body) in order to support better outcomes for the public.

The RFCA has an extensive volunteer membership (numbering around 8,000), bringing a wide breadth of expertise and community links. The RFCAs’ extensive network of volunteer members, based within communities across the UK, enable the RFCAs to better connect to society.

Volunteers assist in providing the RFCAs with the information and knowledge needed to discharge their duties. While the number of hours volunteered is not formally recorded either for the volunteer membership or non-executive board members, it is estimated that this figure is around 69,000 hours per year.