Armed Forces Act 1986

3 Offences in relation to official documents

(1) In section 62 of each of the 1955 Acts and in section 35 of the 1957 Act (making of false documents), for paragraphs (a) to (c) there shall be substituted the following paragraphs—

“(a) makes an official document or official record which is to his knowledge false in a material particular, or

(b) makes in any official document or official record an entry which is to his knowledge false in a material particular, or

(c) tampers with the whole or any part of any official document or official record (whether by altering it, destroying it, suppressing it, removing it or otherwise), or

(d) with intent to deceive, fails to make an entry in any official document or official record,”.

(2) Each of the sections amended by subsection (1) above shall be renumbered subsection (1) of that section and after each of those provisions, as so re-numbered, there shall be inserted the following subsections—

“(2) For the purposes of this section—

(a) a document or record is official if it is or is likely to be made use of, in connection with the performance of his functions as such, by a person who holds office under, or is in the service of, the Crown; and

(b) a person who has signed or otherwise adopted as his own a document or record made by another shall be treated, as well as that other, as the maker of the document or record.

(3) In this section—

• ' document' includes, in addition to a document in writing—

  (a)

  any map, plan, graph or drawing ;

  (b)

  any photograph;

  (c)

  any disc, tape, sound-track or other device in which sounds or other data (not being visual images) are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced therefrom ; and

  (d)

  any film, negative, tape or other device in which one or more visual images are embodied so as to be capable as aforesaid of being reproduced therefrom;

• ' film ' includes a microfilm ; and

• ' record' includes any account, any information recorded otherwise than in a document by mechanical, electronic or other means and any program in a computer.”