USA: Armed Forces
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the suitability of the process by which US Military Police or the USAF Office of Special investigations can take charge of an investigation involving British civilian victims and US military suspects in the UK.
Answered by Mr Calvin Bailey
The Visiting Forces Act (1952) sets out the legal basis for how jurisdiction for criminal offences is decided between the UK civil authorities and a Visiting Force’s service court martial. This is implemented in practice by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the UK courts as part of the criminal justice system. Following the deeply distressing case involving Dr Steele, officials are working across government to establish the full facts of how this process was enacted for that case.
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