Armed Forces Bill

The Bill is about updating our laws. The year 2006 is very different from 1955. Today, we are far more litigious. There are far more questions about the way things happen. The clause will ensure that a commanding officer can have confidence that, once an investigation takes place, the facts will be brought together and they will be dealt with. If we do not have that, we will have more cases like that of Trooper Williams. There is a naivety in the press in looking at some of the Iraq cases. Having spoken to investigating officers on our visit to Iraq, I accept that it is difficult to gather evidence and information in some situations. Even in those cases, however, it protects the commanding officer and the accused if evidence is gathered early and if things are not dismissed out of hand, otherwise there could be accusations of a cover-up. Clearly, there was no such cover-up in the case that has been raised.