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Armed Forces: Desertion

Volume 459: debated on Tuesday 17 April 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what definition is used to determine whether British service personnel are absent without leave. (130589)

[holding answer 29 March 2007]: An absentee is the term applied to a person subject to military law who absents himself from the place at which his duty requires him to be, without leave to do so. Service personnel are found to be culpable of absence without leave if the absence was due to the deliberate intention of the accused to be absent or if it was caused by circumstances which were within his own control.