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Armed Forces Bill

I am entirely happy with the government amendments, which are tidying-up amendments, and there is no problem there. I am also grateful for the assurance on my Amendment No. 105, that this will be interpreted as counting fully towards a sentence. I am less enthused by the Minister’s response both to my Amendment No. 101 and to the amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, on continuous service. He described very well what the Bill is trying to do, but he did not actually answer our questions. It seems to me that the Minister needs to respond. I asked what surveys had been done to make sure that 14 days is sufficient. I was not attached particularly to 28 days, so there was no point arguing against my28 days. I want to know whether we have done some work to see whether this is reasonable. On the noble Earl’s amendments, we heard a similar restatement of what is in the Bill, but we did not hear why what is in the Bill is right, as opposed to what the noble Earl proposes.