Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 27 January (HL4169), whether the proposal to convert the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations into a non-departmental public body is supported by members of the Council of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations; and what consultations with members have taken place.

As stated in my Written Answer of 27 January (HL4169), the views of the membership of the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs) were taken into account as part of the 2019 Review of the RFCAs which recommended that the Council of RFCAs (CRFCA) and the 13 RFCAs should be merged into a single Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), with a National Office and a set of regional organisations.

There will of course be divergent views in any organisation which is potentially subject to change. However, notwithstanding individual perspectives, it is critical that the delivery model is regularised as it currently does not comply with the principles set out in Managing Public Money: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-public-money

Under current legislation, the CRFCA was not intended to be a separate legal entity. Through section 116 (s116) of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 (RFA96), it is a Joint Committee that is part of, and subordinate to, the Associations that have created it. This means that in its current form, RFA96 vests in the Association Voluntary Membership executive authority which, through s116, has been delegated to the CRFCA Board via Association Chairs and then sub-delegated to the CRFCA Chief Executive. As noted in the RFCA Framework Agreement 2016, this creates inevitable tension between an Association’s autonomy and its application of delegation, and any directive authority vested in CRFCA Chief Executive.