The Armed Forces Act 2006 (c. 52) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It came into force on 31 October 2009. It replaces the three separate Service Discipline Acts (the Army Act 1955 (3 & 4 Eliz. 2. c. 18), the Air Force Act 1955 (3 & 4 Eliz. 2. c. 19) and the Naval Discipline Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. 53)) as the system of military justice under which the British Armed Forces operate. The Armed Forces Act harmonizes service law across the three armed services. One motivating factor behind the changes in the legislation combining discipline acts across the armed forces is the trend towards tri-service operations and defence organizations. The act also granted a symbolic pardon to soldiers controversially executed for cowardice and other offences during the World War I.

Key changes

Key areas of change include:

Offences

The act sets out offences against service law and the associated punishments. The offences fall into two main categories:

Pardon

The mass pardon of 306 British Empire soldiers executed for certain offences during the World War I was enacted in Section 359 of the Act, which came into effect on royal assent. This number included three from New Zealand, 23 from Canada, two from the West Indies, two from Ghana and one each from Sierra Leone, Egypt and Nigeria. Tom Watson, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, was instrumental in including this in the Act. He was said to have acted having met the relatives of Private Harry Farr, who was executed during the Great War despite strong evidence that he was suffering from PTSD. However, section 359(4) states that the pardon "does not affect any conviction or sentence." Since the nature of a pardon is normally to commute a sentence, Gerald Howarth MP asked during parliamentary debate: "we are entitled to ask what it does do." It would appear to be a symbolic pardon only, and some members of Parliament had called for the convictions to be quashed, although the pardon has still been welcomed by relatives of executed soldiers.

Commencements

The following orders have been made under section 383(2):