Armed Forces Bill

I warmly welcome the change made by the Bill to allow servicemen and women of all ranks to sit in judgment on courts martial. I always found it peculiar that, previously, the administration of justice at court martial was restricted to officers. It is an excellent idea to take advantage of the knowledge and residual experience of, for example, warrant officers. We ignore that understanding, knowledge and empathy at our peril. The measure is sensible. The recent, unfortunate downing of a Nimrod aircraft showed how mixed our servicemen and women are on operations. I think that I am right that that Nimrod crew included conventional airmen—if that is the right phrase—Royal Air Force Regiment aircrew, a Royal Marine and a Parachute Regiment soldier. Therefore, if there had been some disciplinary proceeding involved, a joint service court martial would have made a huge amount of sense. Assembling such a court martial will be expensive, however, and will cause a time delay. I speak with a little experience about that. A soldier, sailor or airman who is to face a court martial wants quick justice. As a note of caution, the disciplinary atmospheres of the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force are subtly different. For instance, friends of mine in the Royal Air Force who served with my battalion in Bosnia found remarkable the draconian attitudes that we had to take towards the relatively minor offence of absence, which is almost unknown in the Royal Air Force. Therefore, as the application and delivery of discipline are subtly different between the services, I ask the Minister to assure the House that a mixed panel will be the exception rather than the rule.