Courts-Martial (Prosecution Appeals) Order 2006

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 22 May be approved [28th Report from the Joint Committee]. The noble Lord said: My Lords, this order will be made under the Armed Forces Act 2001 and will amend the Courts-Martial Appeals Act 1968, which requires that it will follow the affirmative procedure, needing approval by both Houses. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced the right of the prosecution to appeal against terminating rulings by a Crown Court judge. That was brought into force in the civilian system last year. We believe that it is right and sensible that the same provisions should apply to the Armed Forces and that the service prosecuting authorities should be able to appeal against similar rulings by judge advocates at courts martial. However, the relevant part of the 2003 Act did not make specific provision for that right of appeal to apply to the services. The Armed Forces Act 2001 enables provisions to be made equivalent to those contained in any future criminal justice legislation, and it is intended to use this order-making power to make equivalent provision for the services with regard to prosecution appeals. As noble Lords will know, terminating rulings by a judge take the form of a stay of proceedings, a ruling of ““no case to answer”” or another ruling that is fatal to the prosecution case. That means that a judge’s ruling stops the case so that it is terminated. It proceeds no further, and the accused is no longer subject to prosecution. For example, a judge may decide to stay the proceedings, which has the effect of stopping the case, or he could find that there has been an abuse of process such that the prosecution cannot be allowed to proceed. He could also find that there is no case to answer against the accused, which would generally be because of inherent weakness of the evidence against him. Approval of this order will mean that the service prosecuting authorities will be able to instigate appeals against terminating rulings by judge advocates at court martial through the Courts-Martial Appeal Court. While this right of appeal will apply to all courts martial, it is likely that such appeals will be rare as their use will be dependent on a terminating ruling by a judge advocate. However, it is right and proper that this provision be accessible within the military justice system as it is in the civilian courts. I commend the draft order to the House. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 22 May be approved [28th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Lord Drayson.)