Armed Forces Act 1986

8 Application of limitation period to civilians ceasing to be subject to service law

(1) Subsection (3A) of section 209 of each of the 1955 Acts (application of Act to civilians) shall be renumbered subsection (3B) and before that subsection, as so renumbered, there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(3A) For the purposes of paragraph (g) of subsection (3) of this section a person shall be deemed not to have ceased to be in such circumstances as are mentioned in that paragraph if he has so ceased by reason only of one or both of the following, namely—

(a) the fact that he has ceased to be within the limits of a command within whose limits he continues to have his ordinary residence or to serve or to be employed;

(b) the fact that there has been an interruption of his residence with a family of persons whose place of residence continues to be his home.”

(2) In Schedule 4 to the 1957 Act (application of Act to certain civilians), after paragraph 4 there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“4A For the purposes of section 52(2) of this Act a person shall be deemed not to have ceased to be a person to whom this Act applies by virtue of section 118(2) of this Act if he has so ceased by reason only of one or both of the following, namely—

(a) the fact that he has ceased to be within the limits of a command within whose limits he continues to have his ordinary residence or to serve or to be employed;

(b) the fact that there has been an interruption of his residence with a family of persons whose place of residence continues to be his home.”

(3) Nothing in this section shall affect the operation of any of the relevant provisions in relation to proceedings for an offence by a person who ceased, after the commission of the offence and more than the specified period before the coming into force of this section, to be in such circumstances that Part II of either of the 1955 Acts or any provision specified in section 118 of the 1957 Act applied to him.

(4) In subsection (3) above—

• " the relevant provisions " means section 132(3) of each of the 1955 Acts and section 52(2) of the 1957 Act; and

• " the specified period", in relation to any proceedings, means the period specified in relation to those proceedings in the relevant provisions.