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Armed Forces: Chain of Command

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lord Campbell of Alloway on securing this important debate. I hope that Her Majesty’s Government will not ignore the message that has been sent out today in some very powerful speeches. I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Moonie, on an excellent maiden speech. Our Armed Forces today are very different, even from their recent predecessors, and they face a very different set of challenges. Since the end of the Cold War their role has been transformed from providing a buttress against the Soviet bloc in Europe to enabling the execution of numerous, concurrent operations of variable duration worldwide. Once they are in theatre we require our soldiers to switch seamlessly from war fighting to peacekeeping, sometimes almost overnight, with little thought to what that actually represents. Success of operations depends on many factors, prominent among which is the ability and will of soldiers at all levels to take instant, difficult decisions in the most dangerous and confused situations. Such decisions frequently involve risk—often high risk. Invariably they are made under conditions that are far from ideal, such as fear, fatigue, confusion and concern for each other’s safety, and generally without the full range of information. In Iraq, our troops sometimes have only about four hours of sleep a day—probably in two-hour bursts. On top of that, they operate in sweltering temperatures of between 40 and 50 degrees. To execute those tasks successfully requires a flexibility of mind and purpose. That makes it all the more important that every soldier is confident of the effectiveness of the chain of command, and that he trusts it implicitly. Soldiers must be confident that they will be supported by the judicial system, with full account being taken of the operational circumstances in which decisions were taken, and provided that they acted lawfully and according to their rules of engagement. If the chain of command, which is actually a two-way chain of trust, is undermined by external pressures and an overly legalistic approach, the subtle relationship on which military success depends will be put at very grave risk. Several noble Lords, including my noble and learned friend Lord Mayhew and my noble friend Lord Marlesford mentioned Trooper Williams. His treatment should be taken as a stark warning of the dangers that lie ahead for the Armed Forces if that trend continues unchecked. What signal does that case send to our people serving around the world? Can they trust the word of their superiors? Can they trust the Government who send them into combat so frequently to stand behind them when they need support? The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Guthrie, pointed out that no one trusts the system. The noble Lord, Lord Hoyle, drew our attention, in an excellent speech, to the case of Colonel Mendonca, and my noble friend Lord De Mauley referred to Colonel Tim Collins. Those two cases sent further worrying and conflicting signals to fellow soldiers. Those concerns do not simply evaporate on learning that Trooper Williams has been finally, and rightfully, cleared of all charges after nearly two years on the rack. I also pay tribute to General Sir Anthony Walker. My noble friend Lady Park mentioned the duty of care. But Trooper Williams’s acquittal was greeted with silence from the MoD. What a difference a few words of pleasure at the outcome would have made—not just to Williams but to the 65,000 members of our Armed Forces who have served their term in the Gulf in the past two years. There are 9,200 still there as we speak, and the issue is an ever-present, real and quite inexcusable addition to their already considerable burden. The sense that prosecutions resolved in accordance with the prompt application of military law may be reopened at the whim of some lawyer sitting in the comfort and safety of his office is exacerbating the atmosphere of uncertainty and vulnerability. We look to the Minister to assure the House that the decisions that have been taken in that sense are entirely exceptional and are not envisaged to become standard practice. There is a real danger of a fundamental loss of confidence in the Armed Forces that will lead to the sort of operational paralysis evident in the armies of some other NATO countries. I understand that the Tri-Service Discipline Bill will be introduced in mid-November. We on these Benches have consistently set out our concerns about the Government’s intentions. We shall consider carefully all the Bill’s implications before we finalise our attitude to it, but our current view is that it must meet the following tests. First, the essential authority of the commanding officer must not be undermined by the shadow of civil criminal proceedings or the ICC. Secondly, the chain of command must not be compromised by unwarranted changes in the process of enforcing military law. Thirdly, there must be an understanding that military law and how it is applied must continue to reflect the circumstances under which the Armed Forces operate. Fourthly, the Bill must not compromise the ability or willingness of our Armed Forces to take necessary action in theatres of war. Our soldiers are already subjected to external pressures that were unknown in Cold War scenarios—for example, ever-intensifying media scrutiny and the involvement of supra-national bodies such as the International Criminal Court. I remind the Minister that when debating the jurisdiction of the ICC, my honourable friend Francis Maude, the then shadow Foreign Secretary, called for the seven-year opt-out, which is already exercised by the French Government, and for a watertight opt-out, which enables Ministers who are confident that a case is completely vexatious to ensure that a warrant is not executed against a member of the British Armed Forces. Neither of those two provisions is in the Act. We are witnessing a growing fear of legal vulnerability that will inevitably jeopardise the risk-taking culture that is so essential to the fighting spirit and operational success of the Armed Forces. In this climate of uncertainty troops may hesitate to use lethal force for fear of prosecution. Their lives may be lost as a result. In addressing these issues, we must start with a recognition that the military is different from the society at large. The Government failed to do that during the passage of the Armed Forces (Pensions and Compensation) Bill. The earlier intervention of the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General reflects the Government’s priorities in that he had to attend a hearing to defend the abolition of hunting rather than this very important debate today. I want to make it clear that we on these Benches do not for one second seek to defend any solider of any nation who abuses his or her uniform and commits atrocities against civilians or helpless prisoners. Servicemen and women are not above the law. But we cannot allow the trend of political correctness to infuse the Armed Forces undermining trust, discipline and command relationships. Above all, we cannot afford to see the mechanisms by which military discipline is maintained—the authority of the service boards, the court martial system and summary jurisdiction by commanding officers—undermined any further. They are already on the verge of having been irreparably damaged. The civil courtroom can neither recreate nor fully comprehend the unique conditions of the battlefield; nor must we recreate a climate in which a soldier, faced with a speeding truck bearing down on him, is forced to think, ““I believe I ought to shoot that driver, but perhaps I better telephone my lawyer and check that it is okay””. We ask much of our young servicemen and women. They deserve our support.