Armed Forces Bill

This has been an important debate, with significant contributions. I shall try to answer as many points as I can, but I hope Members will forgive me if I cannot cover every point. We place an enormous responsibility on the shoulders of our servicemen and women. We ask them to operate in circumstances that are often difficult, unpredictable and dangerous. We ask them to perform tasks that have no parallel in the civilian world. Sometimes they make the ultimate sacrifice. We, and they, demand very high standards of behaviour, whether overseas on operations or training at home. Discipline is essential and service law is essential to enforce it. Ultimately we all want an effective, efficient fighting force. At the heart of discipline in any military unit is the commanding officer, and as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made clear in his opening remarks, this key role is retained and reinforced in the Bill. There is no doubt we need a separate system of law for the armed forces, and it needs to reflect the increasingly joint nature of their work. The Bill delivers that. I shall cover as many points raised by colleagues as I can. The hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox), at the Dispatch Box for the first time in his new role, spoke several times about perception and mentioned the Royal Military Police giving warnings in Basra to our troops there. He said that there is a perception that, in Iraq, they will face investigation if they kill or seriously injure someone in battle. This is an important matter and I want to deal with it clearly. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said, our forces operate within the rule of law and have robust rules of engagement. No soldier has ever been prosecuted for killing an enemy in battle. If there is a credible allegation of, say, murder, it is right that the service police carry out an investigation. The Bill offers protection to the accused in that respect as well. He went on to quote the noble Lord in another place who stated, as was mentioned several times this evening, that our forces are under legal siege. I totally reject that. It is important that we get the message across that there have been 80,000 deployments in Iraq since we have been there. As my right hon. Friend said earlier today, there have been 184 investigations and 164 have been concluded. Our forces are not under legal siege at all.