Paragraph 2 Interpretation

In the Code—

• “2006 Act” means the Armed Forces Act 2006;

• “accused” includes a person bringing an appeal to the Summary Appeal Court under section 141 of the 2006 Act;

• “Director” means the Director of Service Prosecutions appointed under section 364 of the 2006 Act;

• “disclosure of material” to an accused includes disclosure of material to his legal representative;

• “disclosure officer” means the service policeman responsible for—

  1. (a)

     examining material retained by a service police force during the service investigation;

  2. (b)

     revealing material to the Director during the service investigation and any proceedings in a service court resulting from it; and

  3. (c)

     certifying that he has done this;

• “investigator” means any service policeman involved in the conduct of a service investigation. All investigators have a responsibility for carrying out the duties imposed on them under the Code, including in particular recording information and retaining records of information and other material;

• “judge advocate” has the same meaning as in the 2006 Act;

• “legal representative” means, in relation to an accused, a person appointed by him as his legal representative, who—

  1. (d)

     has a general qualification within the meaning of section 71 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990^f1,

  2. (e)

     is an advocate or solicitor in Scotland,

  3. (f)

     is a member of the bar of Northern Ireland or a solicitor of the Court of Judicature of northern Ireland, or

  4. (g)

     a person who has in any of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, a Commonwealth country or a British overseas territory, rights and duties similar to those of a barrister or a solicitor in England and Wales and is subject to punishment or disability for breaching professional rules,

  and in this definition the reference to the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland is to be read as a reference to the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland until paragraph 5 of Schedule 11 to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005^f2 comes into force;

• “material” means material of any kind, including information and objects; this includes not only material coming into the possession of the investigator, such as documents seized in the course of a search of premises, but also material generated by him such as records of interview;`

• “officer in charge of an investigation” is the service policeman responsible for directing a service investigation. He is also responsible for ensuring that proper procedures are in place for recording information and retaining records of information and other material in the investigation;

• “prosecution” includes the respondent in an appeal under section 141 of the 2006 Act; and references to the prosecution case, prosecution disclosure and prosecution witness shall be understood accordingly;

• “prosecution disclosure” refers to any duty of the Director under articles 4 and 13 of the Application Order to disclose material which is in his possession or which he has inspected in pursuance of the Code and which might reasonably be considered capable of undermining the case against the accused or of assisting the case for the accused;

• “service court” means the Summary Appeal Court, the Service Civilian Court, the Court Martial or the Court Martial Appeal Court;

• “service investigation” means an investigation conducted by a service policeman with a view to it being ascertained—

  1. (h)

     whether a person should be charged with a service offence; or

  2. (i)

     whether a person charged with a service offence is guilty of it;

• “service offence”, subject to paragraph 11, has the meaning given by section 50 of the 2006 Act;

• “service police force” means the Royal Navy Police, the Royal Military Police or the Royal Air Force Police; and

• “the Application Order” means the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (Application to the Armed Forces) Order 2009^f3.

In the Code—

References in the Code to material which “may be relevant to a service investigation” are references to where, in relation to any material, it appears to an investigator or the officer in charge of the investigation or to the disclosure officer that it has some bearing on any service offence under investigation or any person being investigated, or on the surrounding circumstances of the case, unless it is incapable of having any impact on the case.

In the Code material is “sensitive” if the disclosure officer believes that its disclosure would give rise to a real risk of serious prejudice to an important public interest.