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Armed Forces Bill

moved Amendment No. 44: Page 10, line 1, after ““abusive,”” insert ““harassing,”” The noble Lord said: I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 45 to 48. The purpose of these amendments is to make harassment of one member of the Armed Forces by another a specific and recognised offence. It follows from both the Deepcut report and the agreement recently made and published, with extensive supporting evidence, between the Armed Forces and the Equal Opportunities Commission. Harassment is easier to recognise than define, and is often more evident from the point of view of the victim than that of the perpetrator. AmendmentNo. 46 therefore includes a perception dimension: "““may be thought to be””." It also provides for the minor sentence of a service corrective order to address repetition. The whole thrust of the outcome of the EOC report is the need to stop the offence and to prevent repetition. Amendment No. 45, to substitute ““or”” for ““and””, makes it clear that this offence can be committed without it being likely to cause a disturbance. I beg to move.