My Lords, it is a pleasure to contribute to this group. I am particularly grateful to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, for the clarity with which he introduced these amendments.
I turn first to Amendment 3, which effectively seeks to remove Clause 2. That clause, the “presumption against prosecution”, is very powerful. I of course accept that this may not have the legal force it implies to some laymen, not least because of the other measures in the Bill, but it does indicate a very clear change of direction. If one of the aims of this Bill is to offer reassurance to our service personnel and veterans, this is a very powerful clause.
Amendment 3 seeks to delete this clause and effectively replace it with a guarantee of a fair trial. As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, said, this would happen as a matter of course. I have never met a service man or woman whose concern has been that they will not receive a fair trial in the United Kingdom. So, on the face of it, it does not seem to be a particularly good trade. Removing a presumption against prosecution from Clause 2 and replacing it with a fair trial does not send a particularly powerful message—but I do understand why it is being proposed.
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The amendments on reinvestigation are a bit of a mixed bag. The measures in Part 1 of the Bill do not have a direct impact on repeated investigations—credible allegations will continue to be investigated—but I am concerned that the amendments relating to investigations do not account for the lessons that we have learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, as raised by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith.
As I mentioned at Second Reading, having been Minister for the Armed Forces for a number of years, I witnessed and recognised that the quality of investigations, as highlighted in this debate, improved significantly, particularly in the latter stages of IHAT and, even more importantly, during Operation Northmoor on the investigations in Afghanistan. The thoroughness of those investigations and the improvement in their quality proved vital, in the collection of evidence and documentation, in helping to prevent further reinvestigations, because the evidence was already there. It is important to take the necessary steps to try to ensure that any future incidents are reported and appropriately investigated at the time, reducing the risk for our personnel of historic investigations and particularly reinvestigations, as I said.
I have some sympathy with Amendment 28 and its call for the earlier involvement of a judge advocate, based in part, I believe, on the evidence given to the committee by Judge Blackett, a man I have worked with and have enormous respect for. This and others, such as Amendment 18 on minor offences, which we will discuss later, are genuine attempts to relieve pressure and increase the effectiveness of the service justice system. I hope that my noble friend will look at them seriously; if not, as the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, said, perhaps the Government will consider coming back on how some of these ideas could be incorporated into the Bill.
I sense that, over time, prosecutors should be able to advise police earlier in the process as to whether these new statutory requirements would be met in a particular case and whether investigations are likely to be worth continuing, with the obvious intention of ending investigations earlier where it is clear that there is no case to pursue. While I recognise that the review by Sir Richard Henriques will not revisit past investigations or prosecution decisions but focus on the future, allowing the consideration of options for strengthening internal processes and skills while ensuring that our Armed Forces continue to uphold the highest standards of conduct when serving on complex and demanding operations around the world, I hope that it will help to build on the lessons learned to ensure that allegations are taken forward in a timely manner, providing reassurance to victims, witnesses and suspects alike. The risk of justice delayed, justice denied applies to the subjects of complaints in addition to those who make them.