§ Mr. Garry Allighanasked the First Lord of the Admiralty how many R.N. personnel are now serving sentences for breach of regulations; how many are serving sentences in naval detention camps and how many in civilian prisons; how many are serving sentences of less than two years, how many two to three years and how many three to five years; and how many in those three categories are under 21 years of age.
Mr. AlexanderI regret that the information which my hon. Friend desires could not be obtained without consulting the individual records of offenders both at home and abroad, involving very considerable expenditure of time and labour. The normal statistics do not distinguish between sentences imposed for breaches of the Regulations, and those awarded for other types of offence; nor do they show the ages of the offenders or the number serving sentences not exceeding three months imprisonment or detention. While the answer which I gave to the hon. Member for Bridgeton (Mr. Maxton) on 30th November does not give all the information for which my hon. Friend now asks, the total figure then supplied may be of assistance to him, and I am sending him a copy. The large majority of sentences for all types of offence do not exceed two years imprisonment.