---

Armed Forces Bill

I recognise that this is an important area of the Bill. It is a subject on which we have had many discussions over the past months during the Bill’s passage, both in this House and at the briefings at the Ministry of Defence. We recognise the strong feelings about it not only in this House but also, as the noble Lord has just emphasised, in the Armed Forces, particularly the Army. I shall cover Amendment No. 185 and the points about qualifications first, because it is important for me to stress upfront that the issue here is how we can best meet these concerns. We do not believe that doing so in the Bill would be the most pragmatically effective way, as I shall explain. Noble Lords will understand that the minimum qualifications required to hold the post of director are prescribed in the Bill. These are minimum legal qualifications, which do not amount to a personal specification for recruiting purposes. I also remind noble Lords that my right honourable friend the then Secretary of State said in the other place that it is important that the Director of Service Prosecutions should have relevant service experience. Moreover, under the Bill the prosecuting officers will all be serving officers. It is our intention that one of the essential requirements for the director should be service experience. However, we believe that we could find ourselves in difficulties if we sought to define in the Bill the kind of service experience that is required. As the noble Lord, Lord Garden, mentioned, that is very difficult to do. Are we talking about someone who held a short service commission maybe 10 years ago? That counts as service experience. Or are we talking about someone who has been in the front line of operations? Not many lawyers are in the front line of operations, although in recent years they have increasingly served in operational theatres. However, that is not the case for our more senior service lawyers. Rather than finding ourselves in difficulty by putting that requirement in the Bill, we propose to do it through the recruitment process. I recognise that, in their amendment, noble and gallant Lords are looking to put that requirement in the Bill, so we will need to convince them that the recruitment process will be sufficiently robust to meet their concerns. We envisage that the selection panel will be chaired by a Civil Service commissioner and that the vice-chief of the defence staff, on behalf of the chiefs, will be a member, together with a senior member of the judiciary. Amendment No. 186, which seeks to quantify the type of service experience in terms of years, would mean that we would miss the point regarding the nature and location of that experience. We need to make a qualitative assessment of the type of experience that a candidate for the post has had. Ensuring that the selection panel has on it someone who is in a position to make that judgment is the most effective way of deciding who is to be appointed to the post. The qualifications of candidates will be a much better way of narrowing down the sort of experience that we want the director to have. Moreover, they are not confined to military qualifications. This will be a demanding post and we will wish to appoint a director who in all aspects is an outstanding individual. This means that he will need, in addition to service experience, a proven track record in relevant legal skills, leadership and what we might term ““management skills””. I have referred to service experience. By this I mean an understanding of service life and the operations of each of the services and of the needs and the working of a service system of justice and discipline. This will be essential if the director is to develop effective relationships and enjoy the confidence of the Armed Forces while maintaining prosecutorial independence. If the requirement is drawn too tightly in the Bill or in regulations, we could find ourselves excluding the person whom we are really looking for—the best person for the job. I feel sure that there are people of the right calibre currently serving who could do this job, but it is vital that a director is appointed on merit in a competitive field, which could include civilians who have relevant experience of the services. That is the way to ensure that we get the right person for the job, rather than recruiting from a narrow field and perpetually running the risk of criticism that there were better external candidates. The proposed recruitment process will draw on the one used successfully to appoint the Director of Public Prosecutions. There will be a small, independently chaired panel which will make a recommendation to Her Majesty. As I have said, we intend that a very senior serving officer representing the chiefs of staff will be a member of the panel. I hope that this will give precisely the assurances that noble Lords are seeking through their amendments. The recruitment process, job specification and terms and conditions against which the director is appointed will also be agreed with the services. It is inconceivable therefore that the director would be someone who is unacceptable to the services. For the reasons that I have given, I invite the noble and gallant Lord to withdraw the amendment.