Armed Forces Commissioner Bill

Third Reading

15:33:00

Motion

Moved by

That the Bill do now pass.

My Lords, I extend my thanks to all noble Lords who have contributed to the detailed and meaningful scrutiny of this Bill. Although it is, obviously, not possible for me to thank everyone who contributed to the Bill individually, which I hope Members will understand, there are a few specific thank-yous. First, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, and the noble Earl, Lord Minto, for their co-operation and efforts to improve the Bill. I very much appreciated the constructive way in which His Majesty’s Opposition contributed. If she could pass that on to the noble Earl, I would be very grateful. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, of the Liberal Democrats for her discussions and contributions, which were very much appreciated. I thank all Back-Benchers who contributed, my private office and officials, the Public Bill Office and various other officials of the House, the current ombudsman and the German commissioner, whose example we have used. I express my thanks and gratitude for everyone’s hard work. Finally, as a number of noble Lords will know first-hand, serving in our Armed Forces is both challenging and rewarding for our serving personnel and their families. On all sides of the House, we thank those men and women for their service and for working tirelessly to keep us safe. We owe our serving personnel and their families a commissioner with a single mission; namely, to improve service life. I beg to move.

My Lords, from these Benches, I extend our gratitude to the Minister and his team for the courtesy and time they have extended to discuss some of the issues that we raised at various stages of the Bill. In particular, it is appropriate at this time to welcome the role of the commissioner but also to note that one of the aims is to move on from the ombudsperson. At various stages of the Bill, we talked about different categories of service personnel who might have issues that the commissioner would look into. One set would be LGBT+ service personnel, and at this stage, I pay tribute to the late Lord Etherton for the work that he put in to reviewing the situation of LGBT service personnel in the past. We very much hope that the incoming Armed Forces commissioner, once this legislation passes, will not have to look at such difficult situations in the future. Again, I thank the Minister; I thank the Liberal Democrat Whip’s Office, including Mohamed-Ali Souidi, and wish the Bill well.

My Lords, I hope that it is in order to take 60 seconds to thank the Minister for the way he has conducted himself throughout the Bill. From the very beginning, it was clear that Members interested were invited to understand the nature of the Bill. I very much hope it will make a difference, but it is a very good Bill—and the fact that I grew to have a personal interest in it is neither here nor there. This is a very good step forward, and I wish it well.

My Lords, first, I thank the Minister for his very kind remarks, and I shall ensure that they are conveyed to my noble friend Lord Minto. I also thank him for the constructive manner in which he has approached the passage of the Bill. His Majesty’s Official Opposition have welcomed the Bill from the beginning, and it has been a privilege to participate in its passage through this House. Not only will the creation of the commissioner strengthen the service complaints system by facilitating the investigation of wider welfare issues but I hope it will bolster the confidence of our Armed Forces personnel that this is a real voice of independence for them. Any steps we can take to improve the offering to our service men and women we should vigorously pursue. In that regard, I endeavoured to bolster the Bill by introducing a new duty on the commissioner to investigate whistleblowing complaints. I thank all noble Lords who supported my amendment on Report. I particularly appreciated the contributions of the noble Baronesses, Lady Kramer and Lady Smith of Newnham, the noble Lord, Lord Dannatt, my noble friend Lord Wrottesley and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich and thank them for their words of support and encouragement and for delivering that support in a meaningful form in the Division Lobby. The resounding message your Lordships’ House sent to our Armed Forces personnel, especially service women who feel that their voices have not been heard, is that we are on your side. As this Bill now goes back to the other place, I entreat the Government to reflect carefully on how they address my amendment. This is not a time for ambivalence and uncertainty; it is a time for an unambiguous and positive message to our Armed Forces, and I hope the Government will accept, as this House overwhelmingly did, that the amendment enhances the Bill. Finally, I thank Minister and all his officials for taking time to meet me and my noble friend Lord Minto. The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, has been exemplary throughout the passage of the Bill. I hope that whoever the Government appoint as the new commissioner will live up to the task that has been set. It is a high bar, and much work has still to be done, but I look forward to continuing to scrutinise the Government’s efforts to improve the welfare and the lives of our Armed Forces personnel and I wish the Government well in the creation of this new office.

My Lords, I thank everyone for their short contributions. I have made one catastrophic error: I forgot to thank the Whips’ Office. I hastily put that on the record. On a more serious note, I join the noble Baroness, Lady Smith in her tribute to Lord Etherton. I am sure that there will be another time for us all to reflect more broadly, but she is perfectly right to point out the sad loss of Lord Etherton to this House and the contribution that he made to LGBT as well as more generally on a whole range of things. I congratulate the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, once again, on the forthcoming wedding that is happening—not his, I hasten to add. I look forward to that. The noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, is right to point out that the whole point of the commissioner, and the success of the role, will be on how much we can generate trust and confidence in people to come forward should they be subject to inappropriate behaviour. I reassure the noble Baroness that the Government will, of course, consider carefully how we respond to the amendment that was passed in your Lordships’ House. With those few brief comments, I thank everyone again.

Bill passed and returned to the Commons with amendments.