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Armed Forces Bill

I am slightly surprised that the Minister has not addressed the questions about proportionality when looked at across the piece of other offences that the noble Baroness, Lady Dean, brought up in support of my amendment. The wording may be difficult for the layman to understand in some way, but I got the impression from listening to the debate that there were Members of the Committee who felt that this was a widening rather than a narrowing of the circumstances in which desertion might happen, so legal minds here can interpret it in different ways. Given that and the support that I had for Amendment No. 26, although I shall not press it tonight I shall want to look carefully at the changes made, so that we might look at it again on Report.