§ Mr. Cryerasked the Prime Minister whether she was informed of the nuclear alert which took place in the United States of America ; what action she took on receiving the information ; whether this information was received before or after the alert ; and if she will make a statement.
§ The Prime Minister: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence explained in the House yesterday, the two false strategic alerts last week were caused by errors in a computer in the North Atlantic Air Defence Command. As part of the rigorous verification and checking procedures the United Kingdom ballistic missile early warning station at
Abscondings from : 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980(up to 24 May) within Category D establishments 204 213 228 326 140 within women's open establishments 50 92 72 66 45 supervised outside working parties from Category D establishments 16 16 5 6 0 supervised outside working parties from women's establishments 1 — — — — Totals 271 32l 305 398 185 It would be possible to distinguish those who had been transferred to open conditions from those who had always served their sentences in them, and to identify those who committed further offences whilst unlawfully at liberty, only at disproportionate cost.