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Army: Advice of Attorney-General

My Lords, I agree with the noble Earl, but that is why in turn we have had to bring in additional safeguards to ensure that justice is administered, not the opinion of the commanding officer. Where an offence has been committed under service law, it is entirely appropriate that the military system of justice should prevail. Under the criminal code, particularly for serious offences, that is not enough. The prosecuting authority should be independent of the chain of command to satisfy the requirement that justice be done and that the guilty pays for his crimes, and to ensure that those charged are treated fairly and in compliance with international law. The Attorney-General is the appropriate final arbiter in determining whether charges should be brought and under which system the accused should be tried. As a senior law officer of the government, he is responsible and accountable for the administration of that part of the system of justice in our country. There should be no other final arbiter of which cases are brought to trial and in which type of court. On the other hand, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, advanced a strong and passionate case for a further safeguard to be introduced. My concern would be that that would diminish the authority of the Attorney-General and perhaps weaken our level of compliance with international law. However, the noble Lord’s point is worthy of serious consideration and I have no doubt that we shall return to the matter during our discussions on the Armed Forces Bill later this Session.