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Armed Forces Bill

My Lords, I recognise the strength of feeling on this important matter. As noble Lords and noble and gallant Lords have said, I have looked at it again following our debate in Committee to see whether it would be helpful and appropriate to amend the Bill. I have especially taken on board the views of both current and former service chiefs, who have considered this matter very carefully indeed—rightly so. They have assured me that they are content with the Bill as it stands and with the proposals that I outlined to your Lordships for the selection process. They welcomed the consultation that there will be about the job specification, and the terms and conditions for the post, and the involvement of a senior serving officer in the selection process. I think we agreed on two things: that the director should have appropriate service experience; and that the recruitment process should be sufficiently robust to ensure that the person appointed will be an outstanding individual who will enjoy the confidence of the services while being entirely independent from them. By ““service experience””, I mean an understanding of service life and operations in each of the services and of the needs and the working of a service system of justice and discipline. It is possible that there will be an outstanding candidate for this important post who does not have previous uniformed experience or, indeed, whose service might have been some years before. In both cases it would be particularly important for them to undertake an appropriate induction period before taking up the appointment. Similarly, where the director to be appointed is from one of the services, he or she might also need a period to develop a deeper understanding of how the other two services operate. We recognise that such an induction process needs to be intensive and of a sufficient duration in order for the individual to develop a detailed understanding of life across all three services. As I have already said, it is essential that the director has a knowledge of how each of the services operates and of the needs and the working of the service system of justice and discipline. On the basis of these reassurances, I hope that the noble and gallant Lord feels able to withdraw his amendment.