Stand-off ends over serious offences in military being tried in civilian courts

Peers have ended their stand-off with the Government in demanding military personnel accused of serious offences in the UK, including murder and rape, are tried in a civilian court.

The halt to continued parliamentary exchange over the Armed Forces Bill came after a ministerial concession in the Commons.

The House of Lords had been pressing for the most serious charges against serving personnel, including murder, manslaughter, domestic violence, child abuse and rape, to be heard in civilian rather than military courts.

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While this was rejected by the Government, it committed to publishing more comprehensive data on how such offences progress through the military justice system, aimed at improving transparency.

Defence minister Baroness Goldie told peers: "We consider that it is wrong for there to be an explicit and inbuilt bias towards one system or the other.

"Each system is and should be capable of dealing with all types of offending with decisions made by prosecutors on a case-by-case basis.

"The service justice system will be dealing with all offences when they occur overseas and it really makes no sense to truncate our capability in this area and create the very real risk that the system could be seen as second class if serious offences such as rape and serious sexual assault can be dealt with in the service justice system overseas but not in the United Kingdom.

"We recognise, however, that we could improve confidence in the service justice system by being more open and transparent about the cases the system is dealing with.

"This is why a specific commitment was given… to improve our annual statistical update on offences."

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She added: "Greater reporting will both enable the Government to be held to account and to transparently monitor the health of the service justice system, so that we can make adjustments and improvements where necessary."

MPs also rejected a Lords amendment which would have forced the Secretary of State to lay a report before Parliament detailing the implications of not requiring central Government to have "due regard" to the Armed Forces Covenant, like local authorities and other public bodies.

But Lady Goldie said a 2023 review into the operation of the covenant duty would include "specific consideration of whether central Government and any of its functions could usefully be added".

Labour frontbencher Lord Coaker said: "We believe the Government has moved forward, has made concessions, has made additional commitments."

It clears the way for royal approval of the Bill, which renews the statutory basis of the British military every five years.