Estimating the proportion of prisoners in England and Wales who are ex-Armed Forces; a data matching exercise carried out by the MOD in collaboration with the MoJ

Bray, I; O'Malley, P; Ashcroft, S; Adedeji, E; Spriggs, A

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of prisoners in England and Wales who are ex-Armed Forces by matching administrative datasets held by the MOD and the MoJ. A database of all prisoners in England and Wales on 06/11/09 was matched against a database of Service leavers (Regulars only, going back as far as records are available) using name and date of birth. A match on date of birth and surname (allowing for minor misspelling and truncated surnames, and rejecting matches with differences in forename or middle name) gives 2,207 matches and an estimate of 3%. These figures compare with previous estimates of 6%, 4% and 5% respectively based on surveys carried out by the Home Office in 2001, 2003 and 2004. Although this is the most comprehensive study to date, it is dependent on the quality and completeness of the administrative databases used. In particular, this study will not have captured those who left Service before 1979 (Navy), 1972 (Army) and 1968 (RAF), and so is a lower estimate. Further work is planned during 2010 to estimate the impact of excluding Service leavers prior to the aforementioned dates. We do not expect that a revised estimate would exceed 4%.

• Report Type: Project Report
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2018
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: prison, military veterans
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/982120
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
• Contract Date: Dec 18, 2018