Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the prison population in England and Wales was for the most recent date for which information is available; and how many of those prisoners were formerly members of the armed forces.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes a yearly snapshot which estimates the number of former service personnel in the prison population. This takes place in June each year and is published as part of the Offender Management Quarterly series. The next set of figures is due to be released 28 October 2021.

As at 30 June 2020, there were 1,575 prisoners who stated they were ex-service personnel, meaning that around 3% of those asked identified as such. The MoJ publishes weekly prison population and capacity information through the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-population-statistics

Since 2015 all new prisoners coming into custody have been asked if they have a military background as part of the basic custody screening (BCS) interview. Declaring a military background is not obligatory and, anecdotally, there are reports that some offenders may be reluctant to disclose having served in the armed forces. HMPPS Co-Financing Organisation is helping to support prisons to increase identification of veterans through an ex-armed service personnel action plan.

We are committed to ensuring appropriate support is in place for veterans and their families and are working with charities such as the Forces in Mind Trust to consider what more we can do to enable veterans’ families to engage with services in the Criminal Justice System.