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Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill [Lords]

Indeed. I hope there will be proper guidance and briefings for all our military personnel who might become involved in combined operations with allies. This area will clearly be complex. As the Minister has begun to hint to us, there is a whole gradation of things that could happen. I am glad he says that we will not say to our allies, "You've got cluster munitions, and we think we should use them in this particular circumstance," as it would clearly be against the spirit and intention of the legislation for our armed forces to do that. However, there is a whole series of other situations in which our armed forces could act against the spirit of the legislation because of combined operation. Those in junior command positions could be instructed by senior commanders from allied forces that they need to operate those types of munition. As the Minister has said, our forces could have to facilitate the transport of offensive weaponry, which could include a cluster munition package, or they could be on a battlefield on which our allies are using those weapons but our section is not. Of course, I am very much in favour of the intent of the legislation, but we have to be realistic. We must understand that if we are doing this in a set of complex alliances in which not everyone is agreement, we owe it to our forces not only to give them legal protection—I hope that the measure gives watertight and good protection—but to set out how they should operate day by day where we do not have complete agreement with our allies about getting rid of those weapons.