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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many soldiers have been discharged from the Army in each of the last five years for (a) murder and (b) possession, use or trafficking in drugs; [141018] (2) how many members of the Army have been retained in service in each of the last five years having been convicted of (a) murder and (b) possession, use or trafficking in drugs; [141014] (3) how many soldiers found to be (a) in possession of, (b) using and (c) trafficking drugs have been retained in service for exceptional circumstances; and what are the circumstances in each case. [141016] Dr. Moonie: The Army monitors centrally only statistics of those who have been tried by court martial. Records of those who appear in civilian courts are held at individual regiments and to interrogate those would incur disproportionate costs. We are aware, however, of two people who have been retained in the Army following a conviction of murder in a civilian court. Any murder committed in the UK or Cyprus comes under the jurisdiction of the civil police and is tried in a civilian court. Any murder committed in Germany would, however, be subject to court martial action. No soldier has been tried for murder, by court martial, in the last five years. Up to May 2000, the Army monitored only those cases tried by court martial and those drug offences related statistics are set out in the table: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Date Number to trial Discharged 1995 38 31 1996 34 27 1997 14 12 1998 17 14 1999 19 17 2000 (to date) 8 7 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Those who have been convicted by court martial and retained in the Army for drug offences are in the following table: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Date Numbers retained Conviction 1995 4 Not recorded 1996 2 1 Not recorded/1 Possession 1997 0 n/a 1998 2 Possession 1999 2 Possession 2000 (to date) 1 Possession _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The retention of individual soldiers in relation to drug offences is a matter between the employer and employee. Disclosure of the personal circumstances of such cases is inappropriate. Soldiers caught using drugs can also be tried summarily by their Commanding Officer. Since May 2000, the Army has been monitoring cases of summary dealing and recorded figures to date show that 24 soldiers have been dealt with summarily. The Commanding Officer's powers of discipline do not include the power to dismiss. There is, however, a system for administrative dismissal which could be implemented as a result of the soldier's overall performance. The Army's Compulsory Drug Testing programme also highlights those guilty of drug abuse and those caught will normally, but not always, be administratively discharged.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

357 c728-9W; 141018;141014;141016

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Armed forces Army Convictions Discharges Homicide Drugs Testing

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk