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Armed Forces Bill

The Minister reads from his brief without responding to our debate. Regarding my amendment, which aims to widen the remit of incorrect certification of equipment, perhaps I may give him an example. He stated that it would be unduly bureaucratic for land systems to be included in addition to naval and air systems. However, in modern warfare, we increasingly need to ensure that there are proper devices for the identification of friend and foe. Such devices are and have been fitted to aircraft but, as we discovered in Gulf War 1, they are key pieces of equipment for the land forces, too, if they are not to suffer friendly fire incidents. I assume that the servicing and certification of such equipment, whether it is for the air or ground element, is equally important and that people should be held equally responsible for discharging their duties. Therefore, there must be a supervisory system of oversight to make that happen. This is not a question of there being a bureaucratic process; it is a question of life-and-death systems that depend on people correctly filling out records. Before I decide whether to press my amendment, I would like to hear a response that is not just about bureaucratic systems.