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Armed Forces Bill

moved Amendment No. 38: After Clause 153, insert the following new clause- ““CHAPTER 5 THE ADMINISTRATION TRIBUNAL THE ADMINISTRATION TRIBUNAL (1) There shall be a Tribunal, to be known as the Administration Tribunal. (2) The Administration Tribunal may sit in any place, whether within or outside the United Kingdom. (3) The Administration Tribunal shall have the functions and composition conferred on it by this Chapter.”” The noble Earl said: My Lords, I shall also speak to Amendments Nos. 39 to 48. The Government have made it much harder for the commanding officer to exercise summary jurisdiction. It is thus harder to maintain discipline and morale in military units. I always wondered how the services would work around these legislative changes. The answer is what is called ““administrative action””, which is taken instead. By and large, service personnel are content with this, because when they foul up, the matter can be dealt with speedily—a short flash-to-bang time—just like the situation that obtained before the moving target of the ECHR impacted upon the summary dealing arrangements. Ministers from my party have been just as morally weak-willed as those from this Government. The problem, though, is that there is no appeal against administrative action. That is particularly significant if the action is a discharge, or, in the case of an officer, a requirement to resign the commission. The Minister will point to the grievance procedure and the welcome changes under the Bill. However, I think there is still a gap, particularly in the case of forced discharge or resignation, because it is harder to fight your case from without. Some noble Lords may think the tribunal might be a hindrance to the chain of command. I do not think it should be. For instance, suppose a serviceperson’s career is to be terminated because his services are no longer required. He can be discharged. With the proposed tribunal, however, the decision to discharge can be repealed, and rapidly, because there is a provision in my amendment to provide for rapid decision-making. In a case similar to that of Mr Skinner, of Deepcut notoriety, the tribunal could not—indeed, would not—take very long to reject any appeal against discharge on the grounds of suitability to serve in Her Majesty’s forces. Another problem arises where a serviceperson is required to pay for loss or damage of equipment. I confess I am not fully conversant with current procedure and the provisions of the Bill, but I have personally been invited to pay for loss of equipment by administrative action. I never signed for the equipment I was alleged to have lost—a sleeping bag. The quartermaster sergeant did not have any paperwork that I had signed to show that I had lost a sleeping bag. The problem was that everyone in the squad had signed for a sleeping bag, so he assumed that I had lost one. I had not. Old soldiers will be thinking, ““No change there””, but a tribunal would provide some way of rapidly seeking redress. Some noble Lords may think that this process would be terribly time-consuming. The tribunal could consider several simple cases in a morning, but in more complicated cases it may be able to deal with only one in a sitting. Some might think that the tribunal should have a wider remit, but in drafting my amendment I was careful not to overlap with the remit of the commissioner of military complaints. My objective is to provide a means of appeal primarily against administrative action, which is becoming much more prevalent, particularly against a discharge or requirement to resign the commission. I beg to move.