Armed Forces Act 1966

Terms and Conditions of Service

2 Power of Defence Council to make regulations as to engagement of persons in regular forces.

(1) The Defence Council may, for the purpose of regulating the terms for which persons entering the Royal Navy and enlisting in the regular army or regular air force may be entered or enlisted and the conditions of service therein, by regulation make provision for all or any of the following purposes, that is to say.—

(a) specifying the duration of any such term, whether by reference to a number of years or another criterion or a number of years and another criterion;

(b) requiring any such term to be one of full-time service, or to be in part full-time service and in part service with a reserve force;

(c) enabling a person to determine his full-time service at any time for which provision is made under the regulations, or to transfer at any such time to a reserve force;

(d) restricting a person, in consideration of the acceptance by him of any benefit or advantage, from exercising any such right as is referred to in the last foregoing paragraph;

(e) enabling a person entered or enlisted for a term of service of a description specified in the regulations to obtain treatment as if he had entered or enlisted for a term of service of a different description;

(f) enabling a person to extend the term of his service, whether full-time or in a reserve force, or both;

(g) enabling a person to continue in service after completion of the term of his service;

(h) enabling a person in a reserve force to re-enter on full time service,

and the exercise of any right conferred on a person by virtue of any of the foregoing paragraphs may be made subject to such conditions as may be specified in the regulations.

(2) Regulations under this section may make different provision for different cases, and, in particular, for entry into the Royal Navy, enlistment in the regular army and enlistment in the regular air force, and may, to such extent as appears to the Defence Council to be consequential on the provisions of the regulations, repeal, in the case of the enactments specified in columns 1 and 2 of Schedule 1 to this Act, all or any of the provisions specified in column 3 of that Schedule, and make such other consequential provisions and such incidental or transitional provisions as appear to them necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.

(3) In relation to a person entered in naval service or enlisted in the regular army or the regular air force before the coming into effect of a regulation made under this section, no provision of the regulation shall be so framed so as, except with the consent of that person, to vary or revoke a right to which he is entitled by or under any Act of Parliament (including this Act) relating to entry in the Royal Navy or enlistment in the regular army or regular air force or conditions of service therein, not being a right exercisable only with the approval or consent of another person or an authority, or to impose on him an obligation to which he is not already subject.

(4) Regulations under this section shall be made by statutory instrument, and—

(a) except in the case of a statutory instrument containing regulations whereby provision is made for repealing or amending an enactment, a statutory instrument containing regulations made under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament; and

(b) in the said excepted case, a draft of the statutory instrument shall be laid before Parliament.