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Armed Forces Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Campbell, raises an important point when describing the similarity between orders and the detailed nature of rules of engagement. He has also emphasised the point to which I alluded at the beginning of my response, which is the importance of the intent to do wrong. The noble Lord is right. We have heard on the Floor of this House as we have debated this issue in the past how in combat this may be a split-second decision made in very difficult circumstances. I remember vividly the description that the noble Viscount made to me earlier this year of a soldier going into a dark room, seeing a person and having to make a split-second decision that could cost him his life if he got it wrong. We understand those concerns. None the less, the issue is whether the person acted in combat on his view of the situation as I have described it and what his intent was in that situation. It is important to recognise that if he acts on his view, even if he gets it wrong, he has not committed a crime. Therefore, trying to use the rules of engagement framework, which is designed to enable our commanders to carry out an operation that may be extremely complex, as a document for protection under the rule of law—and so to combine those two things—would act in a way that was prejudicial to operational effectiveness. It is important for us also to bear in mind the fact that in some cases we need to leave important decisions relating to these matters to the operational commanders in the field. I know that the commanders welcome this responsibility. The concern has been raised about whether our soldiers are clear about the rules of engagement. This is a matter that both personally and as a Minister I have asked soldiers about when visiting them on operations, and I believe that they are clear. One might say, ““The soldiers would say that to a Minister””, but when one reads some of the reports of operational commanders coming back from theatre and their responses to whether they are clear about the rules of engagement, I believe that they are clear and I do not believe that we have a fundamental difficulty in this area. If the rules of engagement were to have the force of law and provide an absolute defence, as is being suggested, they would have to take away what I have described as vital operational discretion. They would have to attempt to set out exactly how each commander and each soldier should respond to every situation. As the noble Earl said, losing that confidentiality would be prejudicial. It is also true to say that we would lose the ability to respond to the situation on the ground. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, made the point about the fluidity of situations and how they may change. That is absolutely true. We have heard also the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Inge, talk of the frequency with which the Defence Council meets. We must recognise that we need a process that enables the framework of the rules of engagement for a mission to be modified and adapted by commanders as they see fit in the terms as they find them when on operations. If we had to wait for revised rules of engagement so as to make them compliant from a legal point of view, that would of course delay the process. We must also recognise that the rules of engagement for a particular operation are supplemented by detailed guidance and are adapted for commanders as well as for soldiers, sailors and airmen according to their missions. We heard the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, describe the cards and we discussed them at the briefing meeting; they used to be yellow, as the noble Earl pointed out. We believe that commanders at every level well understand their responsibilities to ensure that those under their command receive appropriate guidance and training and understand the nature of their task. Commanders also understand when the cards, briefings, training and orders are the best way to achieve that. The cards are issued as guidance. A good example of this was the aide-memoire issued to personnel deployed to Iraq during the Operation TELIC war fighting phase, which concerned duties towards prisoners of war and civilians under the law of armed conflict. I do not believe that rules of engagement drafted as the amendment proposes would make the individual any safer from prosecution. Rules of engagement can never flout the law. If compliance with them gave an absolute defence, the police, prosecutors and courts would have to analyse and dissect them to establish whether the individual service man or woman was guilty of an offence. In conclusion, I genuinely believe that this amendment would be disastrous. It would tie the hands of our commanders and all our service people; it would not simplify the law and it would not simplify the sort of decisions that servicemen will always have to take in the difficult circumstances and situations that I have described. It would introduce legal encirclement where it does not exist now.