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Armed Forces Bill

I am sorry to come back to earth; there is a small amendment of mine tucked in this grouping. Amendment No. 204 is separate from the various government amendments. It looks like a remarkably simple amendment—just to add the word ““not””—but I am afraid it changes the sense of what the Government are trying to achieve. Clause 373 deals with transitional arrangements. Clause 373(6) allows the Armed Forces Act to work in anticipation of the coming into force of Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. I am seeking to find out why this should be done, particularly with regard to the under-21s and custodial sentences. The Explanatory Notes—which have been remarkably useful and are very clear compared with those for some Bills—state that it is to allow the current procedures for the imprisonment of 18-to-20 year-olds under the service discipline Acts, but Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 has still not been brought in after six years. The Ministry of Defence is not usually in the vanguard of advances in public law and the like, and the aim of my amendment is to question why we should use the Bill as a vehicle for achieving something in the military that we have not yet managed to achieve on the civil side.