Law Officers

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 1:12 pm on 15 December 2005.

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Photo of Lord de Mauley Lord de Mauley Deputy Chief Whip, Whips, Spokespersons In the Lords, (Also Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland - Not In Shadow Cabinet) 1:12, 15 December 2005

My Lords, like my noble friends Lord Campbell of Alloway and Lord Astor of Hever, I want to focus on the increasing involvement of law officers in the application of the civil justice system to the military. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank, for introducing this debate and for giving me the opportunity to contribute. I declare an interest and speak as a recent commanding officer of a territorial regiment. Indeed, a year ago, the day before yesterday, I returned from a visit to Iraq to see my soldiers on operations—territorial soldiers who were involved first hand in combat with the enemy there. I also make it my business to maintain close contact with officers at command level.

I and many others have spoken in your Lordships' House of the case of Trooper Williams. That case was deeply worrying to many of us as it demonstrated a complete lack of understanding by government of their responsibilities for their soldiers—soldiers of whom they were asking more than many governments have asked in recent years. Although it may have been a senior officer who recommended that the Williams case be passed into the civil justice system, it was the Attorney-General who made the decision; furthermore, it was clearly the atmosphere created by that senior officer's political masters that put him in a position in which he felt he had no option but to recommend as he did.

I want to associate myself with the words of my noble and learned friend Lord Mayhew when he said that he had complete confidence in the integrity of the present Attorney-General. It is not his integrity that I question. I want to repeat his words in a letter to my noble friend Lord Astor of Hever, following the Williams case, explaining his actions. He said:

"My decision was purely based on the interests of justice and the merits of the matter".

The Government's idea of "justice" seems to be the justice of making an innocent man wait two years with a charge of murder hanging over him. Their idea of the "merits of the matter" is the merits of a case in which the CPS decided to offer no evidence when it realised it might lose.

While our Government concern themselves with the human rights of the man Trooper Williams shot—who had been transporting weapons likely to be used directly against our forces—they were apparently unconcerned with the human rights of their own citizen, Trooper Williams, which were clearly infringed by their actions. I say that, first, because his case had been dismissed by two separate commanding officers both of whom had taken detailed legal advice and were subsequently proven correct, and, secondly, because of the awful period of waiting that Williams was put through before finally getting justice. Justice delayed, it is said, is justice denied.

The case of the five men from the Royal Tank Regiment waiting to know their fate over the incident at Az Zubayr is a further damning indictment of this Government's dithering and weak-mindedness. Those soldiers are still waiting, over two years after the incident, to hear their fate.

In the Army today, the issue of rules of engagement is highly contentious. They must be simple because the situations under which they need to be followed are invariably confusing and frightening. The soldier must know those rules instinctively, and that in following them he will without question keep within the law. The Williams case knocked soldiers' trust in the rules of engagement and in the support they will get from the chain of command, and has made every commanding officer's job more difficult. Without complete trust in the rules of engagement and in the unflinching fairness of the justice they will face, soldiers may hesitate in the face of the enemy, and those they are trying to protect may die.

Yet further misguided progress is being made in the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill, under which it is now proposed that our own people may be subjected to trial for their actions under orders in the name of their country many years ago, while the terrorists who threatened them and murdered members of the civilian population are to go free. The world has gone mad, and this Government are leading the way. Judgment is, of course, needed. There are some valid cases; for example, bullying and violence against prisoners is unforgivable. But that very judgment is notable by its absence.

It is clear that the senior army command finds itself now in an extremely difficult position, constantly looking over its shoulder and trying to second-guess what its political masters want of it. The British Army follows a principle that it calls mission command; put simply, that means "train your soldiers at all levels well, then tell them what you want them to achieve, not how to do it". Mission command requires mutual trust between commander and subordinate. There is now a clear feeling that the Government do not sufficiently trust the military chain of command.

That has led to a lack of confidence among the senior leadership. Witness first the letter sent from the Adjutant General to the Chief of the General Staff to try to get Trooper Williams's case transferred to civil jurisdiction. That betrayed a profound insecurity among senior commanders about the lack of government support for the preservation of the military justice system; and witness secondly the new Armed Forces Bill, which removes powers from commanding officers to deal with the more serious cases, which they have proven themselves well capable of doing since the Army Act 1955, of which a recent example is the Williams case. Why undermine its position by changing the rules unless you are not prepared to trust it?

War—and peace making—is a dirty business. It involves the controlled use of force to achieve an aim. If you want the best people to do your dirty work, you must maintain an environment in which they can do that properly, without constantly looking over their shoulders. If you do not, when you need them most, you will find that they have quietly left to pursue an easier life in the civilian world, leaving behind an army of bureaucrats.

This is a Government who, some have suggested, wanted a war because they had seen what the Falklands had done for the Conservatives. It was a hugely inexperienced decision, and it was, as explained by Colonel Tim Collins on BBC's "Newsnight" last night, compounded by a failure to plan for the aftermath, despite having had a dress rehearsal in Kosovo.

Now that they have made such a mistake, they are failing to accept their responsibilities to the people who, in good faith, waged their war. This is undermining the system of military discipline and justice which is absolutely essential to the leadership of soldiers both in war and in peace.

Those who have at heart the interests of our Armed Forces, our country and, yes, of the government want to see a change to a government who accept their responsibilities for their actions. They, and the law officers in particular, can only do this by supporting—rather than undermining—the military justice system and the chain of command.