Armed Forces Act 1966

32 Fines by way of punishment for ratings and alteration of maximum amount of fines.

(1) The punishments that may be awarded by virtue of subsection (1) of section 43 of the [1957 c. 53.] Naval Discipline Act 1957 to a person convicted of an offence under Part I of that Act, being a rating within the meaning of that Act, shall, notwithstanding subsection (3) of that section (which excludes a fine from the punishments so awardable) include a fine; and disrating (specified in paragraph (k) of the said subsection (1)), shall, instead of being treated, for the purposes of the said Part I, as less than a fine, be so treated as greater than that punishment but less than the punishments specified in paragraphs (a) to (h) of that subsection.

(2) The amount of a fine that may be awarded under the said Act of 1957 by way of punishment for an offence, except in the case of an offence under section 42 of that Act (civil offences), shall not exceed the amount of the offender's gross pay for twenty-eight days ; and in the said excepted case—

(a) the amount of a fine that may be so awarded by a court-martial under that Act—

(i) where the civil offence constituting the offence under that section is punishable by a civil court in England only on summary conviction and is so punishable by a fine, shall not exceed the maximum amount of that fine ;

(ii) where the said civil offence is punishable by a civil court in England on indictment (whether or not it is also punishable on summary conviction) by a fine, shall not exceed the maximum amount of that fine;

(b) the amount of a fine that may be so awarded where under that Act the offence is tried summarily—

(i) in any case, shall not exceed the amount of the offender's gross pay for twenty-eight days ;

(ii) where the civil offence constituting the offence is punishable by a civil court in England only on summary conviction and is so punishable by a fine of a maximum amount less than the amount mentioned in the foregoing sub-paragraph, shall not exceed that maximum;

(iii) where the said civil offence is punishable by a civil court in England on indictment by a fine of a maximum amount less than the amount so mentioned (whether or not it is also punishable on summary conviction) shall not exceed that maximum.

(3) For the purposes of the foregoing subsection, the gross pay for a day of a person found guilty of an offence shall be deemed to be the gross pay that is, or would (apart from any forfeiture) be, issuable to that person in respect of the day on which -punishment is awarded in respect of that offence.

(4) Accordingly, the said Act of 1957 shall be amended as follows:—

(a) in the said section 43(1), after paragraph (h) there shall be inserted the following paragraph :—

“(hh) disrating”;

and paragraph (k) shall cease to have effect;

(b) in the said section 43(3), for the reference to paragraph (k) of section 43(1), there shall be substituted a reference to paragraph (hh) thereof, and the reference to paragraph (i) thereof shall cease to have effect;

(c) in section 44(6) the words " shall not exceed the amount of the offender's basic pay for thirty days, and " shall cease to have effect.