---

Court Martial Judgment

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. That cannot have been easy for the noble Lord as many aspects of this affair do not fall directly within his remit. I see that the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General is in his place. We would have expected him to repeat the Statement. I start by paying tribute to our Armed Forces. As the Minister said, they operate to the very highest standard. While we sit in the comfort of this Chamber we should not forget that nearly 100 servicemen have given their lives in Iraq. We asked for this urgent question today because we believe that the wide publicity given to the, doubtless well intentioned, prosecutions of members of the Armed Forces has caused serious damage. This case will have been watched with mounting concern by British troops in Iraq. Morale has been seriously undermined. This is not the moment to go into the details of the case but I should like to know who decided that the prosecutions should take place, who decided that those witnesses should come over, and who evaluated their clearly unreliable evidence. One of the soldiers’ defence barristers said that he was,"““aware that there had been a political overview at various stages of the case””." Is that true? It would be unacceptable if political priorities were put ahead of the interests of natural justice. Is the MoD fulfilling its duty of care? It appears that soldiers and their families are left uncertain about whether they may face prosecution. There are reports that the Secretary of State has ordered an ““action plan”” to address the problem. Can the Minister clarify what the terms of reference will be? Is it the same review that the Minister mentioned in the Statement? When will it report? We do not, of course, condone wrongdoing by our troops. As the Minister said, soldiers are not above the law. However, the Government need to recognise that the apparent current policy of prosecuting so many members of our Armed Forces is completely unsustainable. I do not recall so many prosecutions during the equally difficult operation in the first Gulf War. Can the Minister throw any light on the reasons for that? Can he also confirm that the Government will now take a serious look at other outstanding cases to avoid further waste of taxpayers’ money? Five 2nd Royal Tank Regiment soldiers are still being investigated by the CPS, two and a half years after the event in Iraq, leaving them poorly informed and uncertain whether they will face charges and appear in a civilian court. Her Majesty’s Government must accept that those cases will have lasting effects on the recruitment and retention of our Armed Forces. It is very clear to me from talking to a lot of soldiers that they now feel seriously inhibited in what they do in Iraq. They feel that they can no longer rely on the word of their commanding officer. The battlefield is not a court of law. Can the Minister therefore reinforce to the House today the authority of the chain of command?