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Armed Forces Bill

I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Attlee—the noble Lord does talk a lot of sense on these points. He is right that a development is taking place in defence research on the whole area of performance-enhancing drugs. I shall go away and reflect on whether we need to be clearer about those drugs, but our central point of concern is that the amendment is broad: it would be a defence to take advice from a superior officer, whatever the reason for that advice, even if the officer was not medically qualified. The central point is that the advice needs to come from an officer who is medically qualified. The noble Lord mentioned his own past experience within the military of the way in which these things were done. It is very important that the advice originates from medical advisers and is then passed on through the chain of command. That situation will be covered by subsection (2)(a), which provides a defence where a drug is taken or administered on medical advice. Under those circumstances, the serviceman would not be guilty of an offence. Therefore, there are two important points. First, it is important that the advice originates from someone who is medically qualified and, secondly, it is important that the advice comes down through the chain of command in a way that validates that the advice, once given by the personnel's chain of command or commanding officer, has come from someone who is medically qualified. I will take on board the point he makes about performance-enhancing drugs because there are developments on this issue. Having said that, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.