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Armed Forces Bill

moved Amendment No. 52: Page 11, line 26, after ““he”” insert ““knowingly”” The noble Lord said: I rise to speak to Amendments Nos. 52 and 53, which are amendments to Clause 25. I assume that the Minister is very much in favour of this clause as we have seen, by virtue of the National Audit Office, that his own department is sometimes negligent in this respect. My amendment attempts to try to ensure that this clause is not applied too rigorously. |Given NAO reports over the years, that would mean that the military justice system would grind to a halt since waste appears to be endemic. It involves a more serious point about who we are we trying to catch with this approach. Let me take a concrete example. We keep discussing the eight Chinook HC3s, which must presumably fall within the category of having been authorised to be modified in such a way as to cause a waste of service property—to the tune of £150 million, or whatever it is. Who does this clause catch? There is a chain of people, some of whom knowingly do it—presumably because they have the expertise—and some perhaps unknowingly. Or is it really aimed at very junior personal doing minor wastage on units? If so, that would be unfortunate. My amendments are probing in nature to show exactly where the buck will stop because it could be an important clause if correctly targeted. I beg to move.