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Armed Forces Bill

My Lords, I accept the noble Lord’s point. In the Martin case there were other factors. Besides his age, Martin was no longer subject to service law. He had been back in the UK for over a year and his father was no longer in the Army. The European Court of Human Rights commented that it had ““considerable doubts”” about whether it would have found the reasons for court-martial trial ““compelling””. I believe that we should provide for all civilians subject to service discipline to be subject toa system of investigation and trial which will apply the criminal law of England and Wales, which conducts its proceedings in English and which is ECHR compliant. This is especially important for contractors and others who increasingly accompany our forces on operations abroad. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, this evening stated that civilians subject to service law should not be subject to trial by court martial for any offence in the UK carrying life imprisonment. I should make it clear that a civilian is never subject to service law for offences committed in the United Kingdom. That jurisdiction only applies to the services abroad.