Armed Forces Act 2006

332 Restriction on administrative reduction in rank or rate

(1) The rank or rate of a warrant officer or non-commissioned officer (“the relevant person”) may be reduced only by an order within subsection (2).

(2) An order is within this subsection if—

(a) it is made by the relevant person’s commanding officer; and

(b) it reduces the rank or rate of the relevant person—

(i) by one acting rank or rate; or

(ii) if he has no acting rank or rate, by one substantive rank or rate.

(3) An order reducing the rank of a person who is a corporal in any of Her Majesty’s air forces is within subsection (2)(b)(i) (if he is an acting corporal) or (2)(b)(ii) (if he is not) if, and only if, it reduces his rank to the highest rank he has held in that force as an airman.

(4) A commanding officer who is of or below the rank of commodore, brigadier or air commodore may make an order within subsection (2) only with the permission of higher authority; but this does not apply if the relevant person is a lance corporal or lance bombardier.

(5) Nothing in this section applies to a reduction in rank or rate by virtue of a sentence.

(6) Nothing in this section applies in relation to the reversion of a person, otherwise than on account of his conduct, from his acting rank or rate to his substantive rank or rate.