HC Deb 06 March 1945 vol 408 cc1807-8
20. Lieut.-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will indicate the duties and responsibilities of the Judge-Advocate General.

Sir J. Grigg

His Majesty's Judge-Advocate General, who is appointed on the recommendation of the Secretaries of State for War and Air, and holds his office under Letters Patent from the Crown, superintends the administration of military and air force law in the British Army and Royal Air Force respectively at home and abroad. This includes similar duties in relation to the Royal Marines when subject to military law, and to the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

Sir T. Moore

Is this official a military officer or a civil servant?

Sir J. Grigg

I would not like to answer that conundrum offhand. He is appointed, as I say, under Letters Patent, on the recommendation of the Secretaries of State for War and Air.

Captain McEwen

Is my right hon. Friend aware that this officer may be three in one; and is there any evidence to show that he is any one of the three?

Sir J. Grigg

Perhaps I may state that I have been reading Gibbon again, and there has been a great deal of trouble about the nature of the Trinity in the history of our planet.

Sir Herbert Williams

As the W.R.N.S. come under the Naval Discipline Act, does the Judge-Advocate General deal with them?

Sir J. Grigg

If they were excepted from my list, the answer is "No." My hon. Friend might ask the First Lord of the Admiralty.