Armed Forces Bill

I want briefly to refer to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) about the Attorney-General. I, too, would be grateful for the Minister’s clarification on the precise scope and nature of the Attorney-General’s discretion once the matter of a prosecution has been commenced within the military system. Clearly, once that has happened the Director of Service Prosecutions has the discretion to direct no further prosecution, but at what stage of the proceedings would the Attorney-General’s discretion enter the picture? Once the commanding officer had been informed that there was to be a charge under clause 118 and it had been referred to the Director of Service Prosecutions, would the Attorney-General have the opportunity to intervene and to switch systems from military to civilian? Precisely how far must the case have progressed in the military system before the Attorney-General is prevented from entering deus ex machina, as it were, and switching it to a civilian court?