National Defence committee  That's a very big question. Obviously, we reflect civil society. We recruit from the civil society. The diverse nature of our recruitment means that everybody has a slightly different story. Interestingly, we have a slight debate at the moment about where we should base our regio

National Defence committee  Should they be in the regions they're recruited from, so that they can easily integrate with the families they've come from?

National Defence committee  Or actually, there are some people who are joining the military to get away from that community. Some people come from a background where they're exposed to extreme violence or from a drug environment and they feel that they want to extract themselves from that. They're saying, “

National Defence committee  They're mainly away from the key urban centres.

National Defence committee  Unquestionably we've seen a very similar dynamic. We now have very few overseas bases. Our largest overseas base is about to be Cyprus, and that's only a few thousand service personnel. For the first time in a long time, the majority of the U.K. armed forces are U.K. based. One

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  Our targets at the moment, as laid out by the previous prime minister, are not reflective of society but are a stepping stone on the way there. Getting 10% of recruits to come from the BAME backgrounds and 15% female by 2020 is still a struggle at the moment. We're taking it on a

National Defence committee  I know there have been long discussions between our recruiters and recruiters in the Canadian Armed Forces in our personnel areas to understand the dynamics of recruiting. I don't think either of us necessarily knows what the answer is at this stage. All we know is that we are re

National Defence committee  I don't know the answer to that question, but yes, we have a very similar dynamic. My son is en route into Sandhurst, I think, fairly soon, but no, I don't know if we have statistics or if we're trying to follow that up in any way.

National Defence committee  I think this is an area where, again, we are very closely aligned. My answer to you is, yes, it is acceptable to be any faith within the armed forces now, and that's exactly what our policy states. The enacting of that in certain circumstances is trickier, particularly when you'r

National Defence committee  Sorry. Do you mean if there should be sensitivities in the areas we're deploying to, as to whether we should be deploying certain people?

National Defence committee  Certainly culture and an understanding of the region in which you're deploying are among the key considerations for deploying anywhere. Therefore, we are strong advocates of the women in peace and security initiative that is going forward. Indeed, our secretary of state made a bi

National Defence committee  Yes. I think our experience will be quite similar to that of the Canadian Armed Forces, but there were many instances in Afghanistan where the female engagement teams that we deployed in a similar manner to those of the Canadian Armed Forces had real tactical success in the areas

National Defence committee  Yes, definitely.

National Defence committee  I think within the army it's a bit difficult to judge at the moment, because the close ground combat roles have only just opened up to females, so I think making an assessment is difficult at the moment. We have to allow the passage of time to go on before an assessment is made.