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Armed Forces Bill

Amendment No. 76 is unnecessary. Clause 91 allows a commanding officer to authorise any member of the Armed Forces who is not a service policeman to exercise similar powers to enter and search premises to make an arrest as those afforded to the service police under Clause 90.  This reflects the fact that service police are not always readily available.   I will deal now with Amendments Nos. 78 and 82, which relate to the regime for custody. These provisions are very little changed from the current regime under the SDAs, which were introduced in the Armed Forces Discipline Act 2000, which themselves were based upon provisions in the Bail Act 1976 and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. With regard to Amendment No. 82, for example, the provision regarding timings being approximate in the Bill is identical to the PACE provision and allows the arrangements to work in practice. Amendment No. 78 could have the effect of extending the period which the commanding officer alone can authorise an accused to be kept in custody without charge, without making an application to a judge advocate. In the interests of the accused, this should not be a power that applies in all cases. We have, however, already provided, in Clause 102, for a commanding officer to be able to do this in extremis where it is not practicable to get before a judge advocate within the 48-hour period, but this is subject to tight control. This is already the position under the current service discipline Acts and we believe that it works well in practice. I hope that with these reassurances the noble Lord feels able not to press his amendments. Amendments Nos. 83, 85 and 86 together relate to age. They amendments would raise the relevant age limit in each clause from 17 to 18. Clause 106 sets out the conditions which a judge advocate must have regard to when he is considering whether to authorise post-charge custody. One condition is that the judge advocate is satisfied that the accused should be kept in service custody for his own protection or, if he is aged under 17, for his own welfare or in his own interests. Clause 107 sets out what other factors a judge advocate should consider when releasing an accused person from custody. Subsection (3) permits the judge advocate to require the accused to comply with certain requirements. These are generally the same as those which apply in civilian proceedings. Among them, at Subsection 3(d) is that a person who is under 17 may be subjected to certain requirements by a judge advocate on or after release if the judge advocate considers it necessary for the welfare of the accused or in his interests. Clause 110 deals with the situations, post-charge, or post-conviction, when a commanding officer may be permitted to order the arrest of a person who is not in service custody. Subsection (3) permits a commanding officer to order the taking of a person into service custody when certain conditions exist. These conditions are generally the same as those which apply in relation to civilian proceedings, as the noble Lord has guessed. One condition is that a person who is under 17 may be taken into custody for his own welfare or in his own interests. We do not think that in any of these three clauses there is a case for the services to have a higher age limit to that which applies in civilian proceedings. The effect in each case would be to make an accused more susceptible to custody than would be the case if they were to appear before a civilian court, notwithstanding the wide range of appropriate steps short of custody which are also available to the chain of command. For these reasons I ask noble Lords not to press their amendments. I will finally deal with the second aspect of these amendments, which is in relation to Clause 106 only—Amendment No. 84. This clause sets out the conditions a judge advocate must consider when determining whether to authorise keeping an accused in custody under Clause 105. Conditions A to D are generally the same as those which apply in relation to civilian proceedings. Among them, condition B is that a person who is under 17 may be kept in service custody for his own welfare or in his own interests. The purpose of Amendment No. 84 appears to be clarification. Although noble Lords are of course right to point out that condition D applies only in the circumstances set out in Clause 109, that is already the effect of Clauses 106 to 109 when read together. The amendment would not change the substantive position and the clause as drafted is, I believe, sufficiently clear. I would therefore ask that these amendments be withdrawn.