---

Armed Forces Bill

My Lords, Amendments Nos. 38 to 48 seek to create a right of appeal to a form of tribunal against certain administrative actions, mainly any decision to discharge someone or to require him to resign. The tribunal would be able to overturn the decision or decide on other administrative action. The amendments propose appeals to the tribunal on three counts. In the case of discharge and the resignation of a commission, service personnel already have the right to respond before the discharge or resignation is made final, and thereafter the right to redress should they feel there are grounds for complaint. Equally, where an individual is required to pay for the loss or damage of service equipment, that requirement may be as a result of summary proceedings against which he has the right of appeal or, if not, representations through the chain of command, and, ultimately, service complaints are available. Given the limited grounds proposed for the tribunal, the redress system would still be required for other cases. We have confidence in the streamlined redress system that the Bill provides and do not think that it would be right to introduce a totally different system for certain cases. The tribunal would represent an unnecessary and bureaucratic change that would serve only to delay and complicate matters. I note the points made by the noble Lord relating to the services ombudsman. Given what I have said, I request the noble Earl to withdraw the amendment.