HC Deb 05 April 1922 vol 152 cc2318-9

In Sub-section (2) of Section forty-six A of the Army Act (which relates to the power to deal summarily with charges against officers, and shall hereafter be numbered 47) for paragraph (a) the following shall be substituted:— (a) Forfeiture of seniority of rank either in the Army or in the corps to which the offender belongs, or in both, or, in the case of an officer whose promotion depends upon length of service, forfeiture of all or any part of his service for the purposes of promotion.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."

Lieut.-Colonel WARD

I have not Sub-section (2) of Section 46A of the original Act to refer to, but I notice this Clause begins with a reference to that enactment, which deals with the scale of punishments by courts-martial. Clause 5 says that this particular Sub-section of the Army Act—and these, are the words to which I wish to draw attention—"relates to the power to deal summarily with charges against officers." I wish to know if there is to be any alteration of the previous Act dealing with charges against officers, giving anyone any greater authority to deal with them than the law previously allowed. What really is the meaning of these words? If this confers upon some body or some man power to deal in a summary manner with officers and charges against officers, and if such power did not exist before, I shall require some explanation. If it is only repeating the old form, that is a different matter.

The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Lieut.-Colonel Sir R. Sanders)

I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend that it merely repeats the old form.

Mr. HOGGE

I should like the hon. and gallant Gentleman to make this quite plain. If he reads the Note on this and the preceding Clause, he will find that the first sentence says: Forfeiture of relative seniority for purposes of promotion involves at present no real penalty on officers whose promotion depends on length of service. These Clauses remedy this anomaly. Will my hon. and gallant Friend tell us what is the anomaly?

Sir R. SANDERS

The anomaly is, that there are certain officers to whom the penalty described in this Section of the original Act would not apply. One of the existing penalties is forfeiture of seniority, but there are certain officers whose promotion depends not on their relative seniority, but simply on their length of service. In their case loss of relative seniority would involve no real punishment, because they would remain eligible to be promoted at the end of the prescribed time, just the same. This Clause brings in these officers, and abolishes an anomaly by rendering the officers concerned liable to forfeiture of service, instead of forfeiture of relative seniority. It is a power which exists already in the case of certain officers in the Indian Army.

Major MACKENZIE WOOD

Can the hon. and gallant Gentleman tell us what sort of officers?

Sir R. SANDERS

I have a list here of the most important class of officers concerned. They include: All arms, up to lieutenant; Royal Artillery, up to captain (after 13 years' service in the regiment), Royal Army Service Corps, up to captain (after eight years' service), Royal Engineers, up to major, and so on.

Question, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to.