Member

I apologise again to the Committee for going through this in significant detail but, as we continue our discussions around this, I thought it important to lay out the Government’s view and the rationale for some of the changes we are making with respect to provost marshals in serious cases and for retaining the authority of the commanding officer with respect to summary cases: in particular, trying to resolve the need to move quickly because of some of the serious crimes that the new Defence Serious Crime Command is dealing with, while not undermining the authority and operational effectiveness of the commanding officer. With that, I ask the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich to withdraw his amendment.