My Lords, I am disappointed that the Government are maintaining their opposition to civilianising the courts martial for serious cases, such as murder, manslaughter and rape. The conviction rate for rape alone is 16% in the military courts, as reflected in the remarks from Mr Johnny Mercer in the other place. The Minister has given certain other figures for the last six months. I am very interested in this. Perhaps she could give me the size of the sample when she is winding up? Perhaps we could have a bigger sample, perhaps of a year. I would have thought that these figures alone would cause concern that something was wrong.
Service personnel do not have the statutory protection that other people have when they are tried in ordinary criminal courts or the statutory protections that are embedded in law to ensure that, where there is a majority direction, it is made known, the numbers are made known, and everyone knows where they stand. Nothing of that kind happens in courts martial. According to the Minister on a previous occasion, in some cases—they may be small in number—a verdict of 2:1 is certainly not in conformity with modern criminal jurisprudence.
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It is more than five years since I expressed my concern following Sergeant Blackman’s case in a number of debates which I initiated and which led to the Lyons review. I commend the Government for setting up that inquiry. Perhaps they should have listened to its conclusions as expressed by Mr Lyons.
I shall be very brief but I foresee that, before the next renewal of the Army Act, someone concerned with good governance in the Ministry of Defence will see the inevitable case for radical reform. I support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford. He is absolutely right that the Attorney-General supervises the Director of Public Prosecutions. I see no constitutional difficulty in that. If the amendment may be technically wrong, then perhaps we should have had some kind of provision to enable the situation in Scotland and Northern Ireland to be reflected accurately. I support the amendment.