Armed Forces (Service Court Rules) (Amendment) (No. 2) Rules 2022

Baroness Smith of Newnham Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Smith of Newnham (LD)]

My Lords, like the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig of Radley, on reading the overriding objective as outlined in the statutory instrument, my sense was that it appears in some ways to be motherhood and apple pie. It would seem self-evident that an overriding objective should be that cases should be dealt with justly. How else should we expect the law to be administered? However, the important thing is that the intention is to bring courts martial in alignment as closely as possible with civilian courts, and that is welcome. His honour Shaun Lyons recommended that and that the Government are finally bringing that within the scope of service justice seems entirely appropriate. Similarly, the point about female representation, following from the Atherton report, is welcome, and the Minister’s explanation of why it goes beyond simply sexual crimes and the like is wholly appropriate.

Therefore, in the absence of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford, I am not sure there will be any specific questions from the Liberal Democrat Benches. I realise I should have brought in reinforcements because Liberal Democrats feel that service justice is always best dealt with by my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford.

[Lord Jones (Lab)]

My Lords, I presume that prior to the very welcome rules female board members were never present. Was that the case? I am looking at Rule 3A(1). How often do these boards sit? One presumes it is as events dictate, but how many are there in the average year? What number are we dealing with? This issue is central to the rules and some numbers might help. Finally, can the Minister furnish an example of gender representation—a woman/she/they—on a given present board? Is an example available?