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Armed Forces Bill

Clause 36 creates an offence relating to the signing of false certificates. The certificates are produced as part of the formal maintenance procedures for ships, aircraft and aircraft materials. Amendment No. 59 would extend the offence to cover certificates for all combat vehicles, as the noble Lord has said. We have considered this for land vehicles and equipment. Taking into account the fact that other systems are already in place for land vehicles, we have concluded that it would be excessively bureaucratic to extend such a system of certification to every combat vehicle. We are satisfied that existing systems are adequate. The noble Lord made the point that, as technology changes and vehicles become more complex, this is something that we need to review, but as we stand today we are correct. A failure by service personnel to carry out those checks and inspections effectively can amount to neglect of duty or other offences. Amendment No. 37 would apply the offence of making false records to civilians subject to service discipline. We believe that civilians accompanying the Armed Forces should be subject to service discipline only so far as is essential for operational effectiveness and fairness. It would be wrong to make them essentially the same as service personnel when it comes to disciplinary offences. Nevertheless, I was slightly tempted by Amendment No. 38, which would provide for up to two years’ imprisonment for giving me incomplete information about these amendments. More seriously, it would extend the offence of making false records far beyond the legitimate disciplinary purpose of ensuring that members of the Armed Forces do not make false official records or suppress them. It would cover the giving of ““insufficient”” or ““incomplete”” information, perhaps at a meeting or where a service man or woman knows that the Minister needs only a summary of the main facts, rather than complete information. It would hamstring the Armed Forces in their ability to make judgments about what information to provide to Ministers. There is clear MoD guidance on the provision of information to Ministers, which stresses the requirement for meticulous accuracy and highlights the fact that the consequences of misleading Parliament are severe and that those who do so may be held to account. But Amendment No. 38 is too wide and should be rejected. Amendment No. 39 is unnecessary. It specifies that in Clause 18 the definition of a document should include any ““electronic or computer document””. This is already covered by the definition in subsection (5); a document includes, "““anything in which information is recorded””." Amendment No. 40 concerns inaccurate records. It would replace and extend Clause 36. Its scope would be greater than the current Clause 36 because it would relate not only to ships and aircraft but to any service material, and service material, as I will explain, would cover anything needed for defence purposes. As I said on Amendment No. 59, Clause 36 is restricted to the formal certification procedures for aircraft, aircraft material and any matter relating to the seagoing or fighting efficiency of Her Majesty’s ships. It is not appropriate to extend such formal procedures to a huge range of other service materials. Other offences apply to any inadequacy and record keeping—for example, disobedience to orders or neglect of duty. The amendment is therefore unnecessary. The amendment would also extend the offence to civilians, and I have already explained why I do not think that that would be right. Amendment No. 41 concerns dangerous conduct. The proposed new clause in Amendment No. 41 would create a new offence of using service ships, aircraft and materials in a way that is likely to injure someone. It would apply both to service personnel and to civilians subject to service discipline. We believe that this is unnecessary in disciplinary terms, because dangerous conduct is already covered in the Bill by disciplinary offences such as neglect of duty, hazarding a ship and so on. The worst cases might also come within criminal offences such as manslaughter, but the proposed offence is far too wide. It does not require negligence and it does not require risk of serious harm, yet it seems to cover accidentally dropping some equipment on someone’s foot. The amendment is also new in that it would apply to civilians subject to service discipline. It would effectively make criminal the careless handling of service material by a contractor or, for that matter, by a member of a service family in such a way that someone is likely to be injured. It is often tempting and sometimes seems attractive to add or create new offences, but this would be the wrong way to deal with dangerous conduct by contractors—even more so by other civilians subject to service discipline. The new clause refers also to ““service material””, a definition of which is provided in AmendmentNo. 201A. That definition of ““service materials”” would cover anything required for defence anywhere in ““the Commonwealth””. I have already explained why I think that the proposed amendments using that term are too wide and would further complicate the already excessive requirements of the proposed offence. I wrote to the noble Lord after our debate on 24 July and the matters were dealt with in a memorandum to the Select Committee on the Bill. I ask noble Lords not to press their amendments.