HC Deb 30 January 1945 vol 407 cc1295-6W
Sir W. Allen

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will take steps to ensure that evidence taken down at courts-martial will be done on the prescribed forms and that such evidence on those forms will constitute the original documents of evidence to be submitted to higher authority when it is necessary to review the cases in case of appeal by the accused; and will he see that such evidence is not rewritten or typed copies marked original when in fact they are not the original documents, so as to avoid errors in transcription which may be contrary to the evidence given.

Sir J. Grigg

The documents submitted to higher authority when it is necessary to review a case in which the accused petitions are invariably the original proceedings, duly authenticated by the signature of the President and Judge Advocate (if any), except where the circumstances have made it necessary to invoke the provisions of Rule of Procedure 100. The Rules of Procedure contain precise directions for recording in the proceedings the transactions of a court-martial. The President, or if a Judge Advocate is sitting then the latter, is responsible for the accurate recording of the evidence: it is laid down in the Rules that evidence shall be taken down as nearly as possible in the words used and, where necessary, verbatim.

Transcribed documents are included in original proceedings in the following cases:—

  1. (a) in the more important trials when a shorthand writer is employed to take a verbatim record of the evidence; and the men so employed are specially sworn to take a true record and to deliver a true transcript. The accused has an opportunity of objecting to the shorthand writer before the latter is sworn;
  2. (b) where it is impracticable for the Court to retain an original document which has been produced by a witness at the trial and a copy has been attached to the Proceedings, which has been compared with the original and a note to that effect placed in the Proceedings.

There are no forms prescribed for the recording of evidence. Such forms would be inappropriate, in view of the fact that the evidence given by a witness may cover anything from part of a page to many pages of foolscap, according to its length. I have no reason to suppose that Judge Advocates or Presidents are otherwise than fully aware of their responsibilities, and most scrupulous in discharging them.