Name: Operation Banner - JPNI
Uploaded: 2019-10-23T08:40:54.000Z
Duration: 63 s
Description: Operation Banner

Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

But the party lamented the fact that, at the same time, there will not be similar measures to retroactively stem probes into soldiers who operated in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Gavin Robinson, the party’s defence spokesman, issued a statement tonight as the bill was brought before the House of Commons.

He said: “It is absolutely appropriate and justified that members of our Armed Forces receive protection against vexatious claims and repeated investigations long after they have served.

“For too often the needs of veterans have been side-lined. This Bill amplifies their practical concerns and as such the DUP continues to give it our support.

“We remain deeply concerned, however, that the Government’s commitment to introducing provisions with equal weight and effect for those personnel who proudly served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles has not yet been honoured.

“We would have liked to seen these servants placed in the scope of the current Bill.”

In all, some 300,000 personnel had been posted to Northern Ireland during Operation Banner, he said.

The explanatory notes attached to the bill state that it “seeks to raise the bar for prosecutions in relation to historical incidents that occur in the

context of overseas operations”.

For instance, there should be “a statutory presumption against prosecution”, making it “exceptional” for the state to bring charges against a soldier or ex-soldier five years after an alleged crime.

The bill would also “require prosecutors, when deciding whether to prosecute, to give particular weight to: the adverse effects that the prevailing

conditions during that overseas operation are likely to have had on the ability of that service person or veteran to make sound judgements or exercise self-control or on their mental health”.

The bill exists to try and curb what is frequently called “lawfare” (described in the bill’s explanatory notes as “the judicialisation of armed conflict”).

The note goes on to add: “The MoD faced approximately 1,400 judicial review claims and over 900 civil claims for compensation arising from the 2003-09 operations in Iraq, and around 100 claims arising from operations in Afghanistan.

“In some cases, the courts found that the UK’s legal obligations were breached: they ruled that detention processes were flawed, and that some practices which constituted inhuman or degrading treatment were prevalent...

“Nothing in this Bill will stop those guilty of committing serious criminal acts from being prosecuted.”

The government “is intending to introduce separate legislation covering operations in Northern Ireland”.

Labour has opposed the bill, as have other parties, on the grounds that it could act as a de facto amnesty for soldiers who commit grave crimes on overseas operations.

The Commons debate was ongoing at time of writing.

DUP backs bill to halt ‘lawfare’ against ex-soldiers – and calls for identical action to cover Troubles