Armed Forces Bill

On 24 October, the European Court of Human Rights gave its judgment in the case of Martin. We need to be clear what it decided. The case was about the son of a service man who was tried by court martial in 1995 for the murder of a civilian in Germany. The court martial was subject to the same objections as were found to exist in the Findlay case in 1996, and which were remedied by the Armed Forces Act of 1996. It is no surprise that the European Court also decided in Martin that the court martial was not compliant. The European Court did not decide that courts martial should not try civilians, or that they should not try civilian juveniles. But it did state the important principle that a military jurisdiction should only be exercised over civilians if there are ““compelling reasons””. In the Martin case there was the possibility of civilian trial in the UK, because the charge was murder. The court did not decide whether there had been "compelling reasons" for court martial trial. It did not need to, because as I have said, it decided the case on the basis that the court martial at that time was not compliant. The court did not go into what they thought would be compelling reasons. We are looking carefully at the judgment in Martin. We will consider carefully the need for compelling reasons and will seek to ensure that, where court martial trial is adopted, there are compelling reasons for doing so. We shall also consider further the make-up of the court martial in cases involving civilians. There are a number of issues here. We have to ensure that, so far as possible, we have a uniform and consistent system available for all civilians who come within the scope of the Bill. We also need to take into account the need for a court martial to be able to sit abroad. The Bill contains a wide power to decide the membership of the court martial in special cases. We were already considering what the membership should be in civilian cases. Hon. Members can be assured that in every respect, we will do what we think this judgment requires. Finally, hon. Members will appreciate that the judgment in the case of Martin has potential implications not only for the court martial under the Bill, but also for courts martial convened under the Service Discipline Acts. If, following careful deliberation, we conclude that the judgment requires our current procedures to be modified, we will be able to do so using the alignment powers provided by clause 381.