Armed Forces, Army, Air Force and Naval Discipline Acts (Continuation) Order 2008

My Lords, I start by joining the Minister in sending my condolences and those of my party to the families and friends of those three members of the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, so tragically killed in Afghanistan. I thank the noble Baroness for presenting these orders and, through her, I also thank those responsible for drafting the Explanatory Memoranda, a duty performed with the utmost clarity. The continuation order is much the shortest of the documents before us and is altogether the most important. It serves to remind us and the Government that the existence of the Armed Forces is not simply a matter of executive decision but also a matter requiring continuing parliamentary consent. This should also serve to remind us—and again, remind the Government—that Parliament, having provided the existence of disciplined Armed Forces, also has duties with regard to their pay and conditions, their right equipment and their deployment, as is being increasingly recognised. Where the Government fall short of their duties in any of these matters, they must accept criticisms from within the Armed Forces themselves and from all parts of this House. This is not a party-political matter. It is a parliamentary matter. We and the Armed Forces themselves are entitled to expect that shortcomings will be recognised and will be remedied. The stated object of the service complaints order is so that the service authorities will be put on notice of an incipient complaint by a serviceman or woman to civil jurisdiction. This is to be achieved by initiating a service complaint first. Both I and my honourable friends in another place expressed our concern generally at the intermingling of service law and civilian law. It was one of the deliberate influences on the formulation of the Armed Forces Act 2006. This order seems to me to exemplify just such a confusion. I hope the Minister will be able in her reply to persuade me otherwise. Finally, I turn to the much longer and altogether more complex order, the Alignment of Service Discipline Acts Order, designed to amend the three single service Acts until the omnibus Armed Forces Act comes fully into effect. This, we are told, should be in January next year, some six or seven months from now. Thus, it is very much an interim measure. Noble Lords who have looked at the order will have observed that it comprises 14 pages of closely printed insertions and deletions and a three-page schedule of transitional provisions. It prompts me to ask the Minister how these changes will be promulgated. Will the Acts be reprinted? If not, how will those affected—to say nothing of those advising or representing them—be able to ascertain clearly what the law is in relation to these matters at this particular juncture?