Commentary First Group of Parts – Discipline Part 1 – Offences
40.Part 1 sets out most of the offences which can be committed under service law. All the offences in this Part correspond to existing offences under the SDAs, which have been revised as appropriate. They can only be committed by persons who are subject to service law, i.e. service personnel (or, in some cases, by persons who are “civilians subject to service discipline”: see paragraph 41 below). A member of the reserve forces (such as the Territorial Army) is only subject to service law at certain times (see section 367(2)). Where a section refers to an offence being committed by a person subject to service law, this means that the individual in question must be subject to service law at the time when the offence is committed.
41.Some offences may also be committed by civilians subject to service discipline (defined in section 370), and are identified below.
42.The punishments which can be awarded for service offences are set out in section 164. Unless otherwise stated, the maximum sentence which can be imposed is two years’ imprisonment.