© Dan Chung / AFP
The plan is to end the proliferation of legal cases by paying out to injured soldiers and veterans without them having to sue the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Some critics say the sheer amount of cases presents a threat to Britain's ability to wage war while others hope the move would buttress the UK's combat immunity, making it harder to sue for incidents occurring on operations.
"Our armed forces put their lives on the line to keep us safe," Fallon will say. "I want more generous payments to anyone injured — or the families of those who are killed — in combat and to remove the stress of lengthy legal action." A three-month consultation period is expected to begin on Thursday before the new rules come into force. "As part of these reforms, the MoD will clarify in primary legislation that the common law principle of combat immunity should apply to deaths or injuries which occur in the course of combat situations," the MoD said in a statement seen by the Times.
Comment: FYI: Combat Immunity and the Human Rights Act
Combat immunity provides that when the armed forces are in the course of military operations, they are under no actionable duty of care in tort to avoid causing loss or damage to their fellow soldiers, or indeed to anyone else. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) cannot be sued when a commander makes a mistake in the heat of battle. Combat immunity is not limited purely to situations involving the presence of the enemy but applies to all operations against the enemy where armed forces are exposed to attack or threat of attack, including planning and preparation for combat. In these situations, the army cannot be sued for breach of its duty of care.In other words, no negligence claims (such as improper/faulty equipment) will be allowed by injured soldiers against the Ministry of Defence.
In November a blunder at the Treasury was revealed to have forced the MoD to ask for an extra £438 million ($541 million) in emergency funds to cover payments to a compensation scheme for wounded troops.
The error was exposed when Mark Lancaster, MoD parliamentary under-secretary, admitted an "inadvertent publishing error" had been made in a statement to the House of Commons. The MoD conceded the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme - which pays wounded and retired soldiers - was short by a massive sum.
of course, political correctness. When called upon to fulfill the 'political correctness' of a contract, whether is is the retirement pay out, the covered health care items, homes lost in a fire or flood, the life of a soldier, capacity of a child in a car wreck, the father lost in a divorce, the promise of fairness becomes an intangible object of quantum elusiveness.
The media, while airing our grievances, do not do the only thing required. To sit at the evil doers door. Don't we public wish we had the attack dog aggressiveness of the Paparazzi determined to flush out the greed working for us. Michael Moore dogging the heels of the misdeed maker. Ghandi leading us to the ocean for sea salt to avoid the salt tax. We're waiting.