Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the record of service information that HM Prisons and Probation Service holds on armed forces veterans in its care.

Since January 2015, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has actively been recording service in the Armed Forces as part of the screening process for newly received prisoners into custody. Statistics published in October 2019 indicate that as of 30 June 2019, there were 2,105 prisoners in custody in England and Wales that have declared they have been a member of the armed services (including non-UK armed organisations). This represents about 4% of the custodial population, and it has been consistently at this level since data collection started.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/842613/Ex-service_personnel_in_the_prison_population_Q2_2019.pdf

The department is due to release the next estimate of the total number of ex-armed service personnel in October 2020, which will include data as of 30 June 2020.

Since 2016, a self-declaration form is completed by the National Probation Service at the first point of contact (usually at court) to identify individuals who have been a member of the armed services. As of 30 June 2019, there were 2,544 individuals under probation supervision in England and Wales that have declared they have been a member of the Armed Forces.

Identification and recording remain an issue for this group and there is anecdotal evidence that some offenders may be reluctant to disclose having served in the military possibly due to embarrassment to fellow military personnel or family and friends.

Nonetheless, HMPPS remains committed to actively trying to identify ex Armed Forces personnel as this enables us to put in place the support they need.