R (on the application of Shuttlewood) v Ministry of Defence [2019] EWHC 1209 (Admin)

The claimant renewed his application for judicial review to challenge the decision to try him by way of court martial in reliance on a decision of the Solicitor General to extend the statutory time limit within the Armed Forces Act 2006 to prosecute him.

The claimant was tried by court martial in 2015 for a number of sexual offences committed in 2003/4 and 2009, he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. He has never been a member of the Armed Forces but at the time the offences were committed he was a civilian living in Germany and subject to service jurisdiction. Leave to appeal to the Court Martial Appeal Court was refused.

He advanced two grounds of challenge, the first that the Solicitor General’s fiat was ultra vires because it was not signed in the name of the Attorney General with sufficient reasons. Second, that there was a procedural irregularity as the Attorney General’s consent was not disclosed to the claimant until recently.

Held: there is no requirement that the Solicitor General give reasons for his fiat and any function of the Attorney General may be exercised by the Solicitor General, s1(1) of the Law Officers Act 1997. There is no requirement that a decision to prosecute outside of the time limits be communicated to a defendant in court martial proceedings.

Permission was refused.