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Armed Forces Bill

My Lords, Amendments Nos. 61 to 63 would require an independent member to be present on all service complaint panels, and Amendments Nos. 64 and 65 would allow the Secretary of State to require more than one independent member in prescribed cases. Our starting point is that at the heart of the relationship between service personnel and the chain of command is the chain of command’s responsibility to investigate wrongs and remedy them. But, in some cases, the balance moves in favour of an independent element in that process. We have already identified the key areas where an independent element is needed. They are where a complainant alleges unlawful discrimination or harassment, bullying—which can amount to harassment in some instances—or bias or other improper behaviour. But we do not intend to limit the cases to those instances. There will certainly be others in which expertise or independence calls for an independent element. We also propose to ensure independent oversight of the effective working of the system by the appointment of a statutory Service Complaints Commissioner, who will report directly to the Secretary of State. We considered very carefully the value that an independent member would bring to the decision-making process and concluded that, in addition to the key requirement to inject a fresh but informed perspective on a case, we would also look at the knowledge and experience in a particular field. In other cases, independence is not a key requirement, and in those cases there is no reason not to use panel members from the wider chain of command or civil servants—especially ones with knowledge and experience relevant to the complaint. We therefore believe that our proposals for an independent member on panels in the consideration of certain cases will achieve the right balance between, on the one hand, independence and outside areas of expertise and, on the other hand, the need for the services to respond to complaints and for complaints to be considered by the chain of command with a clear understanding of the service context. There should not be a requirement for more than one independent member to fulfil this function, given that one member will have been appointed to a particular panel on the basis of his independent and fresh perspective and also, perhaps, experience and expertise applicable to the complaint in question. It is important that the services do, and are seen to, consider and remedy any wrongs, but there should also be an independent element within the system and an independent review of the performance. On the strength of my response to the proposals, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.