Tri-Service
MPs Say MoD Should Be Prosecuted For Avoidable Deaths
The Ministry of Defence should be prosecuted for the avoidable deaths of Armed Forces personnel killed during training, according to MPs.
The Commons Defence Committee said it is wrong that the MoD is exempt from corporate manslaughter laws during training exercises and cannot be taken to court over the deaths, even if failings are found to have taken place.
The committee said:
"The lives of serving personnel are worth no less than those of civilians and those responsible for their deaths must be equally liable under the law."
It found that since the year 2000, 135 personnel have died while on training exercises.
They include 89 from the Army, 24 from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and 22 from the RAF.
In 11 of those cases, the Health and Safety Executive issued a Crown Censure - the highest penalty it can impose on the MoD.
The committee has recommended that the MoD can be prosecuted in these cases.
It said the exemption covering the activities of Special Forces should also be lifted where there has been “gross neglect".
The report follows an inquest last year into the deaths of three reservists during an SAS selection exercise in the Brecon Beacons that found a “catalogue of very serious mistakes”.
L/Cpl Edward Mayer, Cpl James Dunsby and L/Cpl Craig Robert following an SAS selection exercise.
However, the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, says the recommendation would put soldiers on the battlefield at risk.
Speaking to the Telegraph newspaper Col Kemp said: “There is already a fear among people who are organising training about being punished in some way for making training too realistic.”
“The reality is the MoD can currently be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter but not in training that simulates war and there is a reason for that because to truly simulate war there has to be some element of danger."
“The report says 135 people have died in training since 2000 but I have no doubt that if training had not been carried out in the way it had since that time, many, many more people would have died in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
In response to the report an MoD spokesperson said: "The safety of our personnel is an absolute priority and, while each death is tragic, deaths in training are rare. We are grateful for the committee's acknowledgement of how seriously we take the risks associated with training and that we are moving in the right direction."
"We acknowledge that more needs to be done, which is why we set up the Defence Safety Authority last year. We will now carefully consider this report and respond in due course."
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