House of Commons - Armed Forces - First Report
INVESTIGATIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
63. We have acknowledged the difficulties faced by the Service police in investigating incidents in operational theatres. There has also been criticism of investigations in the United Kingdom. The Defence Committee's 2005 Duty of Care report noted: "A consistent criticism from the families of recruits who died during their initial training is that the deaths of their children were not properly investigated".[108] The investigation of unexplained deaths of this sort are subject to a protocol between the Service police forces and the Association of Chief Police Officers that sets out the circumstances in which the civilian or Service police forces take the lead in an investigation.[109] In written evidence, JUSTICE expresses concern about "how issues of jurisdiction will be resolved when both civil and Service authorities have jurisdiction in any given case".[110] Within the United Kingdom the civilian police, and therefore the civilian jurisdiction, has primacy for investigations. As Brigadier Findlay explained, "There is absolutely no doubt in the minds of the Service police over the complete primacy of the civil authority to investigate all issues within the United Kingdom".[111] Mr Rooks described the normal arrangements with the civilian police, saying that:
The Home Department civil police have primacy on everything, but there is a protocol which is formalised with the Home Office which sets out what will happen in normal circumstances and […] that a list of serious crimes, which include murder and rape, will automatically be reported by the Commanding Officer or the Service police, if they are the first responder […] to the Home Department police force and they then decide how to deal with the investigation. For a serious crime of that sort they will almost certainly decide to lead that investigation themselves. They may well use the expertise of either the Service police or the MDP, but they will definitely be in the lead.[112]