§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 6 January 2004, I set out the main findings of the judgment of 16 December 2003 of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Cooper and Grieves and future conduct of courts martial. In particular, I stated the Government's intention to put a remedial order before both Houses under Section 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998 for the purpose of making the necessary changes to naval court martial arrangements that would ensure compliance with the ECHR.
The Naval Discipline Act 1957 (Remedial) Order 2004 came into force on 16 January 2004, pursuant to the procedure prescribed in paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to the Human Rights Act 1998. To date, I have received no representations concerning the order. I am grateful to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for recommending that the order be approved. The Government therefore do not intend to amend or replace the order currently before the House.