Air Force Act 1955
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1955 c. 19 |
Air Force Act, 1955
(3 & 4 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 19
An Act to make provision with respect to the air force.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Enlistment and Terms of Service
Enlistment
1 Recruiting officers.
1. The following persons may enlist recruits in the regular air force and are in this Act referred to as recruiting officers, that is to say,—
2 Enlistment.
(1) A person offering to enlist in the regular air force shall be given a notice in the prescribed form setting out the questions to be answered on attestation and stating the general conditions of the engagement to be entered into by him; and a recruiting officer shall not enlist any person in the regular air force unless satisfied by that person that he has been given such a notice, understands it and wishes to be enlisted.
(2) The procedure for enlisting a person in the regular air force shall be that set out in the First Schedule to this Act.
(3) A recruiting officer shall not enlist a person under the minimum age for man's service unless consent to the enlistment has been given in writing—
(a ) if the person offering to enlist is living with both or one of his parents, by the parents or parent;
(b ) if he is not living with both or one of his parents, but any person (whether a parent or not) whose where-abouts are known or can after reasonable enquiry be ascertained has parental rights and powers in respect of him, by that person;
(c ) if there is no such person as is mentioned in paragraph (b ) of this subsection or if after reasonable enquiry it cannot be ascertained whether there is any such person, by any person in whose care (whether in law or in fact) the person offering to enlist may be.
(4) Where the recruiting officer is satisfied, by the production of a certified copy of an entry in the register of births or by any other evidence appearing to him to be sufficient, that a person offering to enlist has or has not attained the minimum age for man's service, that person shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have attained, or as the case may be, not to have attained, that age.
A document purporting to be a certificate signed by the recruiting officer, stating that he is satisfied as aforesaid, shall be sufficient evidence, until the contrary is proved, that he is so satisfied.
(5) In this Part of this Act the expression ‘minimum age for man's service’ means the age of seventeen years and six months, except that in such classes of case as may be prescribed it means the age of seventeen years.
Enlistment for general or corps service
3 Enlistment for general or corps service.
3. Recruits may, in pursuance of regulations of the Air Council under this Part of this Act, be enlisted for service in particular corps, but save as may be provided by such regulations recruits shall be enlisted for general service.
Terms and conditions of service
4 Terms of enlistment.
(1) The term for which a person enlisting in the regular air force may be enlisted shall be such term, beginning with the date of his attestation, as is mentioned in the next following subsection.
(2) The said term shall be—
(a ) where the person to be enlisted has attained the minimum age for man's service, such term not exceeding twelve years as may be prescribed, and
(b ) where he has not attained the minimum age for man's service, a term ending with the expiration of such period, not exceeding twelve years, beginning with the date on which he attains the age of eighteen years, as may be prescribed,
and shall be either a term of air-force service or a term being as to such part thereof as may be prescribed a term of air-force service and as to the remainder a term of service in the reserve.
5 Change of conditions of service by extension of term or of air-force service.
(1) Where a person in air-force service who enlisted for a term ending before the expiration of the period of twelve years beginning with the relevant date makes a written application in that behalf to the competent air-force authority and the authority consent, then on his making such a declaration before his commanding officer as may be prescribed, the term for which he enlisted may be extended so as to end at such time, not later than the expiration of the said period, as may be specified in the application and so as to increase the period of his air-force service, his service in the reserve, or both, as may be so specified.
(2) In this section the expression ‘the relevant date’ means—
(a ) if the said person enlisted after attaining the minimum age for man's service, the date of his attestation;
(b ) if he enlisted before attaining that age, the date of his attaining the age of eighteen years.
(3) Where the term for which a person in air-force service enlisted, or that term as extended under subsection (1) of this section, includes a period of service in the reserve and he makes a written application in that behalf to the competent air-force authority, his period of air-force service may with the consent of that authority be increased, according as may be specified in the application, so as to extend to the whole or a specified part of the first-mentioned period.
6 Change of conditions of service by transfer to or from the reserve.
(1) Where a person in air-force service makes a written application in that behalf to the competent air-force authority he may with the consent of that authority be transferred to the reserve with liability to serve therein until the expiration of the term for which he enlisted (including any extension thereof under subsection (1) of the last foregoing section).
(2) Where a person in the reserve makes a written application in that behalf to the competent air-force authority he may, with the consent of that authority, re-enter upon air-force service for such term as may be specified in the application, being a term ending not earlier than the term for which he enlisted nor later than the expiration of the period of twelve years beginning with the relevant date.
(3) In this section the expression ‘the relevant date’ has the same meaning as in the last foregoing section.
7 Re-engagement.
(1) Where a person in air-force service has completed four years' service from the date of his attestation or (if he enlisted before attaining the minimum age for man's service) the date of his attaining the age of eighteen years, and makes an application in that behalf to the competent air-force authority, he may, with the consent of that authority and on making such a declaration before his commanding officer as may be prescribed, be re-engaged—
(a ) for a further period of air-force service ending twenty-two years after the said date,
(b ) for any shorter period being either a period of air-force service or a period comprising a term of air-force service and a term of service in the reserve; or
(c ) for a further period of air-force service ending on the date on which he attains the age of fifty-five years or any lower age.
(2) In relation to a person who, having been re-engaged, is transferred to the reserve under subsection (1) of the last foregoing section, that subsection shall have effect as if for the reference therein to the term for which he enlisted there were substituted a reference to the term for which he was re-engaged or any shorter term.
(3) In reckoning for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section the period of service completed by any person since the date mentioned in that subsection there shall be included any period so served by him in the reserve and, if before his attestation he has at any time served in air-force service as an officer or airman of the regular air force or the reserve, or the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, any period so served by him before his attestation other than—
(a ) any period served while undergoing training as an officer or airman of the reserve or the Royal Auxiliary Air Force,
(b ) any period served before attaining the age of eighteen years in service in the regular air force as an apprentice or a boy entrant.
Extension of service
8 Continuance in service after term of re-engagement.
(1) An airman of the regular air force who has been re-engaged under the last foregoing...
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