§ Mr. Maxtonasked the Secretary of State for War how many of the personnel of the Army are undergoing sentences of detention, imprisonment or penal servitude of longer than three months at the present time.
§ Mr. LawsonI cannot give exact figures, but on 10th November approximately 2,150 military personnel were under military detention in the United Kingdom for sentences of more than three months. Also, on 31st October, 2,300 were in civil prisons in the United Kingdom, rather less than 700 of these cases being the result of courts-martial. The remainder were civil court convictions, and the duration of sentence is not known. No figures are available for overseas commands later than 30th September, 1945, when, excluding India, 5,600 military 1257W personnel were in prison or detention. I have no information in the War Office as to length of sentence in these cases, nor of the number of convictions under civil proceedings.