The International Criminal Court (ICC) has formally abandoned its long-running inquiry into allegations that British troops committed war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.

It now looks as if the Labour Party, which abstained from opposing the Overseas Operations Bill at Second Reading (and sacked three junior spokesmen for voting against the Bill at that stage), may vote against the Bill at Third Reading tomorrow 3 Nov 2020 if their tabled amendments are not successful.

A large number of cross-party amendments have been proposed by Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party MPs - and by Conservatives. (BAFF members and registered supporters will already know that the federation has no party-political affiliation, and that BAFF never claims to speak for others beyond its own membership.)

Update: The Public Bill Committee which has been considering the Overseas Operations etc Bill has now completed its work and has reported the Bill without amendments to the House of Commons. 

The Bill is now due to have its report stage and third reading on Tuesday 3 November 2020. Amendments can be made to the Bill at Report Stage. The Bill then goes to the House of Lords. Our article below is now archived.

We wrote in May 2020 that BAFF sometimes gets requests for help from former staff who had been locally employed by British armed forces or other UK agencies, mostly in Afghanistan. We may support campaigns by other organisations or groups but we can't get involved directly on behalf of individuals. We can help to publicise any useful web links and would be pleased to hear from any organised campaign on behalf of former local staff.

The article below was originally posted in August 2020 and updated the following month.  Any BAFF member wishing to get in touch about these issues should please use the site contact form.

A Commonwealth citizen with leave to enter or remain in the UK, or who does not require such leave, is entitled to register to vote and then (if over 18 years of age and resident in the UK or serving in the UK armed forces) to vote in any UK General Election.

An Irish citizen who is resident in the UK and is over 18 years of age is entitled to vote in any UK General Election.

You must be registered by 2359 hrs GMT on 26 November to vote in the General Election on 12 December.

UPDATE (OCT 2019):  Thanks for all members' replies and for your scrutiny of the draft answers developed on this site. BAFF duly submitted a response to the MOD consultation on 'Legal protections for armed forces personnel and veterans serving in operations outside the United Kingdom'. (OCT 2020): The former BAFF Chairman Douglas Young gave oral evidence on behalf of the Federation to the House of Commons Bill Committee considering the Government's Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill.

In our 2011 article Armed Forces Trade Unions? we said, firstly, that based on many surveys and our own consultations with serving personnel, we did not consider that traditional trade union status was the appropriate format for an armed forces representative body. Secondly that in any case, armed forces representative bodies in other advanced countries don't go on strike, and this includes those which are registered trade unions.

Might this be about to change in at least some European countries? BAFF has learned that the Council of Europe has published (7 June 2019) a puzzling and unhelpful decision by its European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) in a case brought against Italy relating to members of the Guardia di Finanza, a law enforcement agency which is "militarised" but does not come under the country's Ministry of Defence.

We are very grateful to Mr Herbert Möller for some beautiful photographs taken at the candlelit Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery on Christmas Eve, 2018. This is one of his photos:

Defence is only one of the issues in the General Election on Thursday 8 June, but below are the defence policies set out in the various party manifestos, listed by us in alphabetical order and developed from a helpful compilation by the UKNDA. Click on any party name to see its manifesto policy on defence. Please use the site contact form to tell us about any corrections or additions.

The Electoral Commission has been reminding UK Service personnel that they need to make sure they are registered to vote before the deadlines in April if they want to take part in the elections on Thursday 4 May.

Figures from the Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey reveal that only 80% of the armed forces are registered to vote, and that this drops to only 75% of personnel below officer rank.