Offenders: Veterans

(asked on 28th March 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of former armed services personnel in (a) custody, (b) under probation supervision and (c) on parole in (i) Wales and (ii) England.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 3rd April 2019

In October 2018, the Department published Experimental Statistics on ex-service personnel in the prison population. This new analysis estimates as of 30 June 2018 in prison custody in Wales, out of 2,836 prisoners who were asked and an answer was recorded, 141 (5%) stated they had been a member of the armed forced. In prison custody in England, out of 48,147 prisoners who were asked and an answer was recorded, 1,891 (4%) stated they had been a member of the armed forces. Details of custodial statistics of the report and tables can be found at:

a) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/750708/ex-service-personnel-prison-population-2018.pdf

b) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/750710/ex-service-personnel-2018.ods

As of 30 June 2018, the Department estimates that 2,453 individuals under probation supervision declared they had been members of the armed forces of which, (i) 221 were in Wales and (ii) 2,232 were in England. Of this group, 800 individuals were on some form of post-sentence supervision following custody; (i) 96 were in Wales and (ii) 704 in England.

Armed forces status is determined by self-declaration and the Department is committed to increasing declaration rates. These figures record location of custody or supervision and not nationality. They include service in the reserves and Territorial Army, and those who have foreign and dual nationality who has served in UK or non-UK armed services.

Prisoners who choose to identify as veterans are given access to specialist support, this includes support for issues such as PTSD, that may affect them following their service and additional support can be offered by military service charities working with prisons and rehabilitation services.

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