§ Mr. Sorensenasked the Home Secretary the number of members of the women's Forces who have been arrested and brought before magistrates during the past 12 months; for how long they are normally detained in police court cells; and whether any are now serving sentences in civil prisons for offences arising from failure to perform their Service duty?
§ Mr. PeakeThere are no statistics available to enable me to answer the first part of the Question. The police have power when an offender, whether a man or a woman, is arrested to grant bail for the offender's appearance before the court next morning, and frequent use is made of this power. If this course is impracticable, an offender would not normally be detained for more than one night in police cells. If my hon. Friend has in mind women who are absentees from the 1749W Forces, the usual practice of the police is not to arrest them but to represent to the woman that it would be in her own interest to return to her unit without further delay. It is only in rare cases that it is necessary to arrest a woman as an absentee and bring her before the court. In such cases if arrangements can be made for an escort to arrive while the court is still sitting, she is handed over to the escort at once. In other cases it may be necessary for the court to direct her detention for a short time until the escort arrives. There are no women serving sentences of imprisonment for failure to perform their Service duty. Breaches of Service duty by members of the women's Forces are dealt with by other disciplinary methods than imprisonment.