---

Armed Forces Bill

I thank those who spoke to my Amendment No. 27. I obviously want to read closely what the Minister said, but I do not feel that he answered my point. My point was that we have an extremely obscure Clause 8 and, regardless of whether it is repeated in simpler language in a manual of service law, it seems to be our responsibility as a Committee to try to improve the language if we can. To bring this matter to the Committee’s attention, I chose to use the wording of the existing law and invited the Minister to explain why that was unsatisfactory. He made one point about overseas service, suggesting that someone who went to train at Suffield could, under the 1971 Act, be accused of desertion. I do not think that anyone has been accused of desertion under the 1971 Act but it does not necessarily follow that that is a good reason for throwing out the wording of that Act. The clause tries to specify tasks. Once you start writing down tasks, as opposed to concepts, you potentially get into difficulty. The task of protecting property or life worried me, particularly when you consider the confusion about the definition of ““property”” in the Bill. So I was not happy about the use of the word ““property”” in Clause 8. I shall not dwell tonight on other points, other than to say that at present I am not at all satisfied. I shall not press my amendment at this stage and will consider carefully what the Minister has said.