Legal background Service Police: complaints, misconduct etc
There is a service police force for each of the services: the Royal Navy Police; the Royal Military Police and the Royal Air Force Police. Each is headed by a Provost Marshal. Members of the service police are not constables but have law enforcement powers that enable them to carry out criminal investigations. By section 115A of the AFA 2006, Provost Marshals are under a duty to ensure that all investigations carried out by the force are free from improper interference.
	Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary inspect and report to the Secretary of State on the independence and effectiveness of investigations carried out by each service police force under section 321A of the AFA 2006, and provide independent oversight of the forces, in a similar way to that provided to territorial and other civilian police forces across the United Kingdom (save in Scotland where Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland is the responsible body).
	The Provost Marshals have put in place complaints procedures to deal with complaints about members of their forces. These procedures allow complaints to be passed to another force to investigate in appropriate cases. However, there is no independent body that has oversight of these arrangements, or that can carry out investigations into serious matters.
	The Act creates a new office holder – the Service Police Complaints Commissioner – and creates a power to establish a complaints regime similar to the one applicable to those serving with civilian police forces in England and Wales, and to give the Commissioner functions similar to those conferred on the Director General of the Independent Office for Police Conduct. It also takes powers so that similar provision can also be made regarding matters of concern raised by whistle blowers as well as super complaints, which will allow designated organisations to raise issues about harmful patterns or trends in policing.
	The Act creates the framework for the establishment of a tri-service serious crime unit for the service police. The Act provides that the Provost Marshal for serious crime (who will head the new unit) is subject to the same rules about appointment as the existing provost marshals of the service police forces and provides that the Provost Marshal for serious crime owes the duty of investigative independence for investigations by the tri-service serious crime unit on the same terms as existing provost marshals owe a duty of investigative independence for investigations by their service police force. The new tri-service serious crime unit is included within the new regime for complaints against the service police.