---

Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I, too, go along with everything said by the noble Lord, Lord Howell, in particular the importance of clarity in the legal status of members of the Armed Forces. That is essential. My concern about this clause is not so much on whether it should stand part, because provision setting that out, however imperfect it may seem, is essential, but about the use of the words "operation" and "co-operation". By its definition, an international operation is co-operation between those taking part. Is it semantics? I wondered whether there was confusion over whether a military operation implied something like peace enforcement, where force was being used, and that co-operation implied other activities such as post-conflict reconstruction, in which it was not. Of course, the people taking part in post-conflict reconstruction are hardly likely to be using cluster munitions; they would be clearing them up. That is something that needs to be tidied up, but I took heart from what the noble Baroness said at the beginning: that the Government’s intention was not, as it were, to stick by every letter of this for all time but to be prepared to amend as we go along. In the interests of the clarity requested by the noble Lord, Lord Howell, this point should be considered and then made clear to those who will have to abide by it.