Armed Forces Bill

There is nothing inconsistent between that and my accurate description of the fact that the offences of inhumane treatment and manslaughter for which charges were brought were of long standing in English law—both military and civilian—and existed long before the International Criminal Court Act 2001. In the case of Colonel Mendonca, the charges were brought under section 29A of the Army Act 1955. That is the accurate position. It is up to hon. Members to regret, perhaps, that the offences were incorporated in the International Criminal Court Act, or that the Act was passed, but it is quite wrong to imply that the offences would not have been extant in English law if the Act had not been in force. They would have been in law under the Army Act, English law and the Geneva conventions that were brought into our law in 1957—incidentally, under a Conservative Government.