Written question asked by Peter Viggers (Conservative) on Monday, 15 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 December 2008. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Monday, 12 January 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisoners: Armed Forces

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) male and (b) female former members of the (i) Royal Navy, (ii) Army, (iii) and Royal Air Force are in prison; and what studies his Department has (A) commissioned and (B) evaluated in links between service in the armed forces and subsequent behaviour leading to detention.

Answer: The information requested is not available. Although data from nationally representative surveys of some 2,000 sentenced prisoners near release conducted in 2001, 2003 and 2004 showed the proportion of prisoners who had previously served in the armed forces in those years as 6 per cent., 4 per cent, and 5 per cent, respectively, no research was done on the particular problems raised in the question.We are currently exploring with the Ministry of Defence ways to better identify the number of veterans currently serving prison sentences as well as the factors associated with their offending. A number of options are currently being assessed.

Secondary information