Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many soldiers were recorded as AWOL in each of the last five years; and how many such soldiers were aged (a) 18, (b) 19 and (c) 21 years at the time of going absent.

Absent Without Leave (AWOL) information is recorded by the Royal Military Police on their REDCAP system. The number of soldiers recorded as AWOL in each of the last five completed calendar years is:

Each incidence of AWOL is recorded as a separate entry. As such if an individual has been AWOL three times during a year this will be recorded as three separate instances of AWOL.

To provide the age of each individual would require a manual check of every AWOL record and as such could be provided only at disproportionate cost.