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Armed Forces Bill

I shall read paragraph 50 of the report to which the hon. Gentleman agreed:"““Lord Boyce advocated a requirement that the Commanding Officer write to the prosecuting authority describing the context of the incident. We debated whether it was necessary to include such an express duty or a permissive provision in the Bill. In the Standing Committee phase of our deliberations, the Minister argued that Commanding Officers were already entitled to make the relevant authorities aware of any mitigating factors, including the military context, and that a statutory provision would introduce delay into the process.””" The Committee made the following recommendation:"““We emphasise the importance of Commanding Officers exercising their responsibilities to inform the prosecuting authorities of any relevant mitigating factors and the context in which events occurred.””"