Armed Forces Bill

I share the hon. Gentleman’s disappointment. The matter is serious and will not go away at the end of the evening. I take his point on board. The Bill marks an historic change for the armed forces. In a sense, the most important test of its value is the support that it has from the armed forces. The services have been central to the development of the Bill. The clear modern drafting is a testament to the skills of parliamentary counsel. The chiefs of staff, commanding officers and men and women of all ranks have supported the Bill. It is right that we should replace the three service discipline Acts—the Army Act 1955, the Air Force Act 1955 and the Naval Discipline Act 1957—which provided the legal basis for service discipline for so many years. Importantly, when enacted the Bill will deliver the undertaking that the Government gave in 1998 in their strategic defence review to introduce a single system of service law. Under this legislation, for the first time, we will have a single system that will apply to all three services at all times and wherever they are in the world; nor should we forget the civilians who accompany them overseas. The Bill recognises a world in which the three services increasingly train and operate together, but equally it will underpin the maintenance of discipline through the chain of command that is so fundamental to the operational effectiveness of our armed forces in which we all take such pride. We have listened to Members and made some sensible amendments. This is still work in progress, as we have said. The Government will take the opportunity during the Bill’s passage in another place to bring forward any further amendments to ensure that we give the armed forces the best possible system that we can.