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Armed Forces Bill

Perhaps if I speak to my amendments, some of the commentaries might be short-circuited. This is a complex grouping that relates to Clause 366, a useful part of the Bill in which all the delegated powers are grouped so that they can readily be seen. I should remind your Lordships that I am a member of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Select Committee. The problem with the clause is that it refers to many previous issues that we have dealt with, and the Government have picked up most of the Select Committee’s recommendations, so I can be brief. My Amendment No. 192, which seeks to provide stronger parliamentary scrutiny to part of Clause 127, has fully been addressed by the government amendment following the recommendation of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in paragraph 10 of its report. Amendment No. 197 seeks to ensure that any changes to the court martial rules covered by Clause 162 are subject to the affirmative procedure. The clause gives a long and detailed, but not necessarily exhaustive, list of provisions that may be made. Therefore, it is at the heart of ensuring that the system is fair and just. Paragraph 17 of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s report recommended that, "““rules dealing with the composition of the Court should be subject to affirmative procedure””." I note that a government amendment deals specifically with that point. I agree with that, but I wish to go further: we need all rules to be subject to affirmative procedure, given their central importance to the court martial system. My Amendment No. 199 brings four sets of regulations into affirmative action. I shall not deal in any detail with those covered by the government amendments—that is, Clause 270, Clause 326(2)(c), Clause 328 and Clause 332(2). However, I should like to address Clause 334(5). Clause 333(1) enables the Defence Council to delegate its functions to a service complaint panel, but Clause 334(5) allows the Secretary of State to change the composition of that panel by negative procedure. Given that that could change the new system in a significant way, affirmative action is appropriate, as the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee recommends at paragraph 26. However, I note that the Government have narrowed their change down to just Clause 334(5)(a). In my view, that does not meet the recommendation of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and it leaves open all aspects of the service complaint panel, apart from composition. I wish to hear the Government’s reason for not fully addressing the committee’s concerns.