72.This section confers on a member of the Armed Forces general powers of arrest, entry, search and seizure without a warrant when there is reasonable grounds for suspecting the person of committing an offence or of being a terrorist. There is no equivalent power under the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1341) (“PACE(NI)”), since PACE(NI) does not apply to the Army. Subsection (6) provides that subsection (2) does not seek to legalise any act which would be unlawful under the Human Rights Act 1998.
Commentary Part Vii: Northern Ireland Section 83: Armed forces’ power of arrest and seizure