§ Peter BottomleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the numbers of qualified lawyers and support staff in each of the armed services' legal departments, identifying where possible those concerned with courts martials, in(a) 1980, (b) 1990 and (c) 2000. [7402]
§ Mr. IngramThe employment of qualified lawyers and support staff in the armed forces, and the organisation of the individual service legal branches, varies greatly.
The Naval Service—the number of qualified lawyers in the Royal Navy for the years requested are:
Year Qualified lawyers 1980 29 1990 29 2000 33 The Royal Navy does not have a dedicated legal branch. Instead, qualified naval barristers are employed in legal posts throughout the service. In the year 2000, there were 21 legal posts of which 17 were filled by barristers. The remaining 16 lawyers will have been employed in normal naval duties afloat and ashore. Unfortunately, no such statistics exist for the years 1980 and 1990. It is estimated that between one third and one half of the qualified legal personnel will have been involved in court martial proceedings as a part of their duties.
961WAs the naval service does not possess a dedicated legal department, there are no dedicated support staff. It is estimated that about 12 senior and junior RN ratings would have supported the various naval barristers whose work included court martial proceedings. In 1996, a dedicated court martial management cell was established specifically to administer courts martial, consisting of five service and civilian support personnel.
The Army—in both 1980 and 1990, the lawyer strength of the Adjutant General Corps Army Legal Services (AGC(ALS)), formerly the Army Legal Corps, was approximately 53, with the number of these involved in court martial related work estimated as 32. The lawyer strength for 2000 is 97. It is estimated that about 25 to 30 support staff existed in the years 1980 and 1990, and that there were approximately 72 support staff in the year 2000. The exact figures cannot be quoted as a number of the support staff were locally employed personnel at overseas stations, and the figures are not held centrally.
In April 1997 the Army Prosecuting Authority (APA) was formed, with two branches—one in the UK, the other in Germany. The total strength of the APA during the year 2000 dealing with courts martial was:
Number Lawyers 30 Support staff 32 The Royal Air Force—the number of qualified lawyers in the RAF, for the years requested, are:
Year Qualified lawyers 1980 21(8) 1990 24(9) 2000 32(12) The bracketed figures represent the estimated number of qualified RAF legal officers who were involved in discipline casework, which includes courts martial. Prior to the establishment of the RAF Prosecuting Authority in 1997, some legal officers, particularly in overseas locations, combined a small amount of court martial work with other duties. It is estimated that the number of RAF legal support staff has remained constant at approximately 13 (one NCO and 12 civilians) for each of the dates requested.