Lord Robathan: ...them with contempt. Lastly, after 18 months-plus of restrictions, I ask everybody in this Chamber, and the Minister in particular: have the restrictions worked? In May of last year, there had allegedly been 250,000 cases; there have now been some 10 million. What did the restrictions achieve? The vaccines have been fantastic but the restrictions have not achieved very much, except perhaps...
Lord Robathan: ...—Shiner and other lawyers were scouring Iraq and using public money to fund spurious cases against soldiers. Shiner was found to have been paying people to bring vexatious complaints, and some allegations were found to be “deliberate and calculated lies”. In Northern Ireland, which is not part of the Bill, Sinn Féin and the IRA are pursuing 14 year-old cases against soldiers. The...
Lord Robathan: ...—and I hope he still is a friend—may have noted that there was not a lot of support for his position in the House. I thought the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, was somewhat rude to me in this allegedly courteous House. I remind her of what Dr David Nabarro of the WHO said. I remember him doing excellent work when I was on the DfID Select Committee. He said that lockdowns make “poor...
Lord Robathan: ...there are very many more. For instance, my son at Sandhurst has had it; my daughter, 50 miles away in Oxford, has it, as has my niece in Gloucestershire; three out of 12 jurors in the trial of the alleged murderers of PC Harper have self-isolated; and there are lots more cases besides, of which we all know. They have not been tested but it seems likely that the number of additional cases...
Lord Robathan: ...titles through all sorts of ways, especially in the 20th century with Lloyd George and so on. There are some excellent and valuable Members, and some less so. I believe it was Barbara Castle who allegedly said, “Is it better to be appointed to a peerage by Charles II or by Harold Wilson?” That brings me to the majority of us—life Peers. Again, some are valuable contributors and some...
Lord Robathan: ...to the Provisional Army Council—the IRA. Will Her Majesty’s Government therefore stop pandering to or placating Sinn Féin by allowing vexatious prosecutions of soldiers and policemen for alleged crimes during the Troubles? Instead of pursuing public servants who are doing their duty of protecting the people of the United Kingdom, will the Government focus on the terrorists and...
Lord Robathan: ...that that is why people like me wish to see the supremacy of UK law restored. This legislation seems to me somewhat dishonest. Let me explain why. I have not counted, but the Prime Minister is alleged to have said in Parliament 108 times that we are leaving on 29 March. That is this Friday. One has to ask—again, this is not a matter for joy on any side of the House—whether anyone will...
Lord Robathan: My Lords, I am very pleased to speak in this debate. I will take up where my noble friend Lord Attlee left off about the pursuit of former servicemen who may have committed, or are alleged to have committed, some crimes in the past. The veterans strategy does not address that. It should be in the veterans strategy because, frankly, it is a disgrace that historic allegations which have been...
Lord Robathan: ...use of force—lethal force—by the Israelis. However, this was whipped up by Hamas. We know that and, indeed, I understand that Hamas has claimed that over 50 of the dead people were allegedly members of Hamas. That is not a capital offence, in my opinion, and there was disproportionate use of force, but any investigation must be impartial, and I do not think that that was on offer at...
Andrew Robathan: What assessment he has made of allegations of intimidation during the recent referendum campaign.
Andrew Robathan: ...be re-opened? As she said in her statement, if the evidence is sufficient to warrant prosecution, people will be prosecuted, and it appears that the Metropolitan police had evidence to pursue an allegation against Mr Downey.
Andrew Robathan: ...report presented to the Home Office, as she has direct responsibility for the Department. The shadow Home Secretary talked about people turning a blind eye, suppressing and ignoring the report. The allegations made yesterday and today on the BBC were very distressing, so could the Home Secretary please publish what she finds out about all that, without an overarching inquiry and without a...
Andrew Robathan: ...of Mr Justice Sweeney, and I join those such as Lord Pannick, the distinguished jurist, who believe that the interests of justice should have trumped the mistake made by the police. Indeed, the allegations made against Downey were so serious that to all laymen such as myself, the judgment was extraordinary. On the subject of the OTR scheme, does my right hon. Friend believe that although...
Andrew Robathan: ...report and accounts later this year. The UK operates in Afghanistan as part of the UN-mandated 50-nation ISAF coalition and at the invitation of the Afghan Government. We investigate carefully all alleged incidents involving UK forces from whatever cause. The Government does not record total figures for insurgent or civilian casualties in Afghanistan because of the difficulty of collecting...
Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on allegations of misconduct committed by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), whether reported by UK armed forces or other International Security Assistance Force partners, in the format requested. Incidents of misconduct relating to ANSF personnel are treated very seriously by the UK. Any serious incident of misconduct by the ANSF...
Andrew Robathan: ...answer of 21 May 2013 (Official Report column 718W) The Minister for the Armed Forces promised I would write in response to your question on the average length of an investigation in respect of allegations relating to the possession of indecent images and the start date of each case. The average length has been calculated as 10 ½ months, using a sample of the investigations reported in...
Andrew Robathan: While we investigate carefully all alleged incidents involving UK forces from whatever cause, the Government do not record total figures for insurgent or civilian casualties in Afghanistan because of the immense difficulty and risks that would be involved in collecting robust data.
Andrew Robathan: The following table details the number of allegations of rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration against members of the armed forces reported by civilians to service police in each year since the implementation of the Armed Forces Act 2006 on 1 November 2009 to 31 December 2012. Rape Sexual assault by penetration Sexual assault 2009 3 0 1 2010 15 3 9 2011 11...
Andrew Robathan: ...and Wickford (Mr Francois), gave on 10 April 2013, Official Report, column 1128W. The Ministry of Defence holds the following information recorded by the service police on other child abuse(1) allegations involving service(2) or civilian personnel based in Germany in the period between the implementation of the Armed Forces Act 2006 on 1 November 2009 and 31 December 2012. The total...
Andrew Robathan: ...(BFG). All new child protection cases in BFG are investigated by a team comprising SSAFA social workers and the Royal Military Police. However, as in the UK, the nature and circumstances of the allegation will determine if the investigation is a single agency lead, for example, police only or social work only. All SSAFA social workers are registered with the appropriate professional body,...