Defence (Amendment) Act 2007

Amendment of section 2 of Principal Act (interpretation generally).

6.— Section 2 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by inserting the following definitions:

“ ‘a day’s pay’ means—

(a) in relation to a person who is convicted by a court-martial of an offence against military law or in respect of whom a determination is made or confirmed under Chapter IV of Part V of this Act and who is a member of the Defence Forces, the basic pay, excluding any additional pay or allowance, that is, or would be, payable to that person in respect of the day on which punishment is awarded in respect of the offence, or

(b) in relation to a person who is convicted by a court-martial of an offence against military law or in respect of whom a determination is made or confirmed under Chapter IV of Part V of this Act and who is not a member of the Defence Forces but who was a member of the Defence Forces when the offence was committed (not being a person to whom paragraph (c) of this definition applies), the basic pay, excluding any additional pay or allowance, that would be payable to that person in respect of the day on which punishment is awarded in respect of the offence if he were a member of the Defence Forces on that day and his rank and service (or service in rank, if appropriate) were the same as those on the last day of his service in the Defence Forces, or

(c) in relation to a person who is convicted by a court-martial of an offence against military law or in respect of whom a determination is made or confirmed under Chapter IV of Part V of this Act and who is not a member of the Defence Forces but who is, or was when the offence was committed, subject to military law as an officer pursuant to section 118(d) or (e) or as a man pursuant to section 119(c) or (d), the basic pay, excluding any additional pay or allowance, that would be payable to an officer in the rank of second lieutenant who is in receipt of the maximum pay applicable to that rank, or to a man in the rank of private of the highest grade who is in receipt of the maximum pay applicable to that rank, as the case may be, in respect of the day on which punishment is awarded in respect of the offence;

‘assisting person’ means in relation to proceedings for an offence under Part V of this Act, subject to the consent of the member concerned, such member of the Defence Forces who is subject to military law as the person charged with the offence may choose for the purposes of providing assistance to that person as provided for in the said Part V;

‘court-martial’, when used without qualification, means a general court-martial, a limited court-martial or a summary court-martial;

‘Court-Martial Administrator’ means the Court-Martial Administrator appointed under Chapter IVA of Part V of this Act;

‘court-martial rules’ means rules made under section 240B with respect to courts-martial;

‘Director’ means the Director of Military Prosecutions appointed under Chapter IVB of Part V of this Act;

‘document’ includes—

(a) a map, plan, graph, drawing, photograph or record, or

(b) a reproduction in permanent legible form, by a computer or other means (including enlarging), of information in non-legible form;

‘intoxicant’ includes any alcohol, drug, solvent or any other substance or combination of substances;

‘military judge’ means a military judge appointed under Chapter IVC of Part V of this Act;

‘scheduled offence’, for the purposes of Part V of this Act, shall have the meaning assigned to it by section 176A;”,

(b) in the definition of “prescribed”, in paragraph (a), by substituting “(other than Chapters IV and X or in the case of any matter or thing referred to in Part V as prescribed by court-martial rules)” for “(except Chapters IV and X)”,

(c) in the definition of “service” by inserting “or any other matter” after “property”,

(d) by deleting the definition of “steal”,

(e) by substituting the following for the definition of “superior officer”:

“ ‘superior officer’ includes—

(a) when used in relation to a member of the Permanent Defence Force, an officer or non-commissioned officer of the Permanent Defence Force of equal or higher rank who is authorised, in relation to that member, by or under this Act or by custom of the service, to exercise authority over that member,

(b) when used in relation to a member of the Reserve Defence Force, an officer or non-commissioned officer of the Permanent Defence Force or of the Reserve Defence Force, of equal or higher rank, who is authorised, in relation to that member, by or under this Act or by custom of the service, to exercise authority over that member;”,

and

(f) by inserting the following after subsection (3):

“(4) In this Act, a reference to stealing shall be construed as a reference to theft within the meaning of section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 .”.