Armed Forces Act 2006

233 Order for service parent or service guardian to enter into recognizance

(1) Where—

(a) a person aged under 18 is convicted of an offence by the Court Martial or the Service Civilian Court,

(b) he is a civilian subject to service discipline, and

(c) he has a service parent or service guardian,

the court may, and in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (3) must, exercise the powers conferred by this section.

(2) The powers conferred by this section are as follows—

(a) with the consent of the offender’s service parent or service guardian, to order that parent or guardian to enter into a recognizance to take proper care of the offender and exercise proper control over him; and

(b) if the service parent or service guardian refuses consent and the court considers the refusal unreasonable, to order that parent or guardian to pay a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(3) The circumstances referred to in subsection (1) as those in which the court must exercise the powers conferred by this section are—

(a) that the offender is under 16 when convicted; and

(b) that the court is satisfied, having regard to the circumstances of the case, that the exercise of those powers would be desirable in the interests of preventing the commission by him of further offences.

(4) Where the powers conferred by this section are not exercised in a case where subsection (1) applies and the offender is under 16 when convicted, the court must state in open court that it is not satisfied as mentioned in subsection (3)(b) and why it is not so satisfied.

(5) A parent or guardian is a “service parent” or “service guardian” for the purposes of this section if he is a person subject to service law or a civilian subject to service discipline.

(6) For the purposes of this section, taking “care” of a person includes giving him protection and guidance and “control” includes discipline.