§ Lords amendment: No. 1, in page 9, line 24, leave out from "section" to "shall" in line 26.
10.15 pm§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces (Mr. Philip Goodhart)I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this we may take Lords amendments Nos. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 22.
§ Mr. GoodhartAll the amendments before us are of a technical or procedural nature. Their main effect will be to tidy up certain loose ends in the Bill. Amendments Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 22 are all concerned with the commencement provisions of the Bill.
As with previous Armed Forces Acts, it is not possible to bring the more complex provisions into effect immediately, because of the need for detailed administrative regulations to be issued to the Services and for the manuals of service law to be amended. Clause 28 therefore provides that the date for bringing such provisions into force shall be determined by statutory instrument. On the other hand, some provisions need to come into force immediately, such as clause 1, which continues the Service Discipline Acts. A revised list of those is provided by amendments Nos. 8 and 9.
Amendments Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 seek to delete references to certain clauses coming into effect one month after enactment as those are now overtaken by amendment No. 9, which provides that they shall either come into effect immediately on enactment or subsequently by statutory instrument. Amendment No. 22 clarifies the position on commencement of schedule 5. I commend the amendments to the House.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Lords amendments Nos. 2 to 5 agreed to.