At a meeting at Chatham House, Gen Sir Nicholas Carter, the Chief of the General Staff, talked about the importance of the ‘readiness’ of the British army and how the composition should reflect the population in terms of ethnic minorities and women. As it stands at the moment, the structure of the army ‘encourages women to leave’ and needs to be reformed to allow women to reach the top. He also added that a reduction in the ‘significant number of complaints about bullying harassment and discrimination’ was a priority. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, previously stated that the Army should end its ban on women in the front line, following an 18 month review (ref BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, 19 December 2014: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02fl89p). This could happen by 2016.