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Armed Forces Bill

My Amendment No. 26 relates to the maximum sentence available for desertion. I agree with what all noble Lords have said about the seriousness of the offence, but the punishment—life imprisonment—is very severe. At one of our helpful briefings with the Bill team in June, I was interested to know how often we charged people for desertion and what penalties were awarded. Are many people serving life because they have deserted? The Minister was kind enough to write to me on 13 June with the recent statistics, which are sparse: not many people are charged with desertion. A follow-up letter dealt with two cases in the Navy and two in the Royal Air Force in the past five years. The Army has had rather more—20 in the past five years. The Minister also helpfully told us how the most recent cases have been dealt with. Five Army personnel had been court martialled for desertion and the sentences given were 112 days’ detention and reduced to the ranks, 202 days’ detention, 10 days’ detention and dismissed, six days’ detention and dismissed, and 138 days’ detention and dismissed. The Minister was right to reassure me that we hardly ever used life imprisonment as a punishment for desertion. We measure it in days rather than years. As the possible penalty is so severe, desertion is very rarely used, perhaps more rarely than it should be. Absence without leave tends to be used instead, which rather distorts our assessment of all sorts of things, because desertion can be a measure of morale within the services. So one offence, absence without leave, has a maximum of two years, and the other, desertion, has life imprisonment. I am not sure of the right level, but it should be less than life. For that reason, I suggest that 10 years would seem to say that this offence is serious, but we are putting it at a practical step up from absence without leave. I would happily argue for less than 10 years, but not more. I fully support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Judd. It is useful. I agree that, technically, one could argue that we would not send the forces unless it were legal, but recent experience leads one to be slightly uncomfortable about that. I endorse everything said by my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford on that point. I have received, as I am sure have other noble Lords, representations that the subsection that deals with military occupation should be dropped. It was slightly startling to read. It is a new concept in military law. When we discussed this at the Ministry of Defence, I accepted the argument that this narrowed the occasions on which one could be charged with desertion, but it is unfortunate that this particular phrase has been included given the sensitivities that still exist over the operation in Iraq.