The Defence Serious Crime Unit (DSCU), is a military unit within the Defence Crime Command which investigates alleged crimes and criminal activity involving personnel subject to Service law in the United Kingdom, or those in the UK military serving abroad. The unit replaces the three Special Investigation Branches of the UK armed services (the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, and the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Background

In 2017, a Service Justice System (SJS) review was enacted, led by Shaun Lyons and Jon Murphy. One of the report's recommendations was that a Defence Serious Crime Unit be formed from personnel drawn from all three service strands within the UK military framework. ;Recommendation 2: A tri-Service Defence Serious Crime Unit (DSCU) is created following the civilian police Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) model. ;Recommendation 3: The three existing Special Investigations Bureau (SIB) be brigaded into the DSCU together with all current specialist investigative support - intelligence, undercover, surveillance, digital units, forensic and scenes of crime. ;Recommendation 4: SP ervice policepersonnel are seconded into the unit and should retain their individual SP identity. In October 2020, Ben Wallace MP further enacted a second report by

Richard Henriques Sir Richard Henry Quixano Henriques (born 27 October 1943) is a British retired lawyer and judge who was a Justice of the High Court of England and Wales. Early life and education Henriques was born in south Fylde, educated at Southdene, in So ...

which agreed wholeheartedly with the SJS review in the setting up of the DCSU. This report was delivered in October 2021. The service criminal inquiry process had attracted some criticism as it was deemed to have not effectively investigated criminal activity, particularly the most serious crimes of rape, manslaughter and murder. The Centre for Military Justice maintains that such serious crimes as these (and the crime of sexual assault by penetration), should be investigated by civilian police forces. Up until 2006, these crimes were tried in the civilian courts, however, this was amended in 2006 so that service police could investigate crimes that had historically occurred abroad (when service personnel were on active duty) which the civilian courts could not legally prosecute. One of the accusations about Service Police was that they were/are not able to handle complex investigations, particularly serious offences. In 2012, the body of a Kenyan woman was found in septic tank three months after she had disappeared. It is alleged that a British soldier killed her after she was seen out partying with soldiers based near

Nanyuki Nanyuki is a Market town in Laikipia County of Kenya lying northwest of Mount Kenya along the A2 road and at the terminus of the branch railway from Nairobi. The name is derived from Enyaanyukie Maasai word for resemblance. It is situated just ...

. A request by the Kenyan police to the

Royal Military Police The Royal Military Police (RMP) is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of army service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK and while service personnel are deployed overseas on operation ...

(RMP) to collect DNA samples from all the soldiers in the hotel on the night of Agnes Wanjiru's disappearance was not acted upon.

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

stated that the RMP is not fit for purpose. "It is one thing to break up bar brawls between soldiers and locals, but investigating murders and collecting forensic evidence is beyond its limited capabilities."

Role

Ben Wallace MP described the formation of the new unit as "... a step change to improving the quality and capability of the armed forces to investigate serious crimes. Fully independent, it will create a critical mass of experience and personnel to ensure our investigations are thorough, high quality and timely." The "fully independent" that Wallace states is that investigations will be outside of the alleged victims' chain of command. The DSCU will utilise the specialist skills and resources of all three services in one unit. In November 2021, when some of the recommendations from the Henriques report were taken forward, it was stated that the DSCU would have military commander who was "hierarchically, institutionally and practically" independent of the chain of command and of those whom it investigated. All staff on the new unit will be trained to deal with sexual offences, with some being trained in special investigations procedures, family liaison and specialist interviewing techniques at the

College of Policing The College of Policing is a professional body for the police in England and Wales. It was established in 2012 to take over a number of training and development roles that were the responsibility of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) ...

. The DCSU will be a tri-service unit under the command of a newly appointed

provost-marshal Provost marshal is a title given to a person in charge of a group of Military Police (MP). The title originated with an older term for MPs, '' provosts'', from the Old French ''prévost'' (Modern French ''prévôt''). While a provost marshal i ...

. Legislation dictates a "Tri-service serious crimes unit" being formed on 5 December 2022.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Centre for Military JusticeThe Henriques ReviewReview of the Service Justice System
Military police agencies of the United Kingdom Organisations based in Hampshire Military units and formations established in 2022 2022 establishments in the United Kingdom Defence agencies of the United Kingdom

Background

Role

See also

References

External links