1 Introduction
1. The Constitutional Affairs Committee decided to
conduct a short inquiry into the work of the Office of the Judge
Advocate General, the body responsible for the conduct of proceedings
at Courts Martial for the Army and Royal Air Force, appointing
civilian judge advocates and monitoring the military criminal
justice system.
2. The Office of the Judge Advocate General falls
under the responsibility of the Department for Constitutional
Affairs. The appointment of the Judge Advocate General is made
by the Sovereign by Letters Patent. The Judge Advocate General
appoints judge advocates to conduct proceedings at Service Courts
and to hear custody applications and applications for search warrants.
The Judge Advocate General does not operate courtrooms, provide
staff for hearings, summon witnesses or guard defendants—this
is carried out by bodies under the Ministry of Defence.
3. The Committee focused on the operations and future
role of the Office of the Judge Advocate General and its relationship
with the Department for Constitutional Affairs. In the course
of its inquiry the Committee received written evidence from: the
Judge Advocate General, His Honour Judge Jeff Blackett; the Department
for Constitutional Affairs; and the Ministry of Defence. It also
took oral evidence from Judge Blackett on 29 November.
4. The Government has now published its Armed Forces
Bill, which makes significant changes in the court martial system
and deals with a number of issues raised in the written and oral
evidence the Committee received during its inquiry.[1]
The Committee considers that it would be helpful to Members,
if, as well as publishing the evidence in time for the debates
on the Bill, it presented this short report drawing attention
to some of the issues which were raised, particularly those which
are unresolved.
1 Background on the system of military justice and
the Armed Forces Bill can be found in: Background to the Forthcoming
Armed Forces Bill, Library Research Paper 05/75, 11 November
2005 Back
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