Armed Forces Act 2006

54 (1) Schedule 1 to that Act (enlistment) is amended as follows. U.K.

(2) For paragraph 2(1) substitute—

“(1) An enlisting officer shall not enlist a person under the age of 18 unless consent to the enlistment has been given in writing by—

(a) an appropriate person; or

(b) if the person offering to enlist is living with more than one appropriate person, each of those appropriate persons.

(1A) In this paragraph “appropriate person” means, in relation to a person offering to enlist, a person with—

(a) parental responsibility (within the meaning of the Children Act 1989 or the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995) for him; or

(b) parental responsibilities (within the meaning of section 1(3) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995) in relation to him.”

(3) In paragraph 2(2) for “appropriate minimum age” substitute “ age of 18 ”.

(4) In paragraph 4(4) for “appropriate minimum age” substitute “ age of 18 ”.

(5) In paragraph 5—

(a) in sub-paragraph (1) omit “or recklessly”;

(b) in sub-paragraph (2) for “subject to service law” substitute “ a member of the reserve forces ”;

(c) in sub-paragraph (3) for the words from “has since” to the end substitute “ becomes a member of the reserve forces is liable on conviction by the Court Martial to any punishment mentioned in rows 2 to 12 of the Table in section 164 of the Armed Forces Act 2006. ”;

(d) after that sub-paragraph add—

“(4) For the purposes of determining the Court Martial's powers when sentencing an offender to whom Part 2 of Schedule 3 to the Armed Forces Act 2006 (ex-servicemen etc) applies for an offence under sub-paragraph (1), sub-paragraph (3) has effect as if the reference to rows 2 to 12 were to rows 2 to 10.

(5) Where an offence under sub-paragraph (1) is committed by a person within sub-paragraph (3), the time for which he is for the purposes of section 62 of the Armed Forces Act 2006 (time limits for charging) to be regarded as being a relevant reservist (within the meaning of that section) includes the period from (and including) the time he committed the offence to the time he became a member of the reserve forces.”

(6) In paragraph 6(1) for “a court-martial” substitute “ the Court Martial ”.

(7) Omit paragraph 7 and the heading before it.

Commencement Information

I1 Sch. 14 para. 54 in force at 28.3.2009 for specified purposes by S.I. 2009/812, art. 3(a)(b) (with transitional provisions in S.I. 2009/1059)

I2 Sch. 14 para. 54 in force at 31.10.2009 in so far as not already in force by S.I. 2009/1167, art. 4