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Armed Forces Bill

I have tabled one amendment in this group but I shall speak first to the other amendments. We are generally supportive of those amendments, particularly Amendment No. 37, which proposes that the offence should apply to civilians. However, I have a problem with the aspect of the offence proposed by the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, that connects parliamentary business and the supply of false information. It seems to me that supplying false information to a Minister will probably be a reasonable offence under military law without having to attach additional burdens of proof regarding the parliamentary business aspect. Several parts of the Bill deal with what is required of official records. Amendments Nos. 40 and 41, which stand in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Astor of Hever, and which concern records and dangerous conduct, are entirely sensible. My Amendment No. 59 in this group relates to what is covered by inaccurate reporting. Clause 36 is entitled ““Inaccurate certification””, but it might be much better if we ordered the Bill in such a way as to have all these matters in one place. In any event, we need to realise that the technology is moving on. I accept the comment of the noble Lord, Lord Astor, that even with the inclusion of land combat vehicles the wording may still be too narrow, but we certainly do not want to restrict the provision to aircraft and ships. The technology that is associated with all forms of military activities is becoming highly complex and an audit trail of servicing will be needed to record who has done what to equipment to ensure that everything is all right. Amendment No. 201A concerns the definition of ““service material””. I have a slight worry that it is too narrow; it focuses too much on material used for defence and does not include things that are enabling. I am sympathetic to the amendments. I believe that these provisions could be redrafted to make them clearer and to ensure that we have them all in one place, and I hope that the Government will want to do that. That would cover us in future rather than simply repeating what was in the service discipline Acts.