Naval Discipline Act 1957

88Periods of unlawful absence

(1)Where any person sentenced under this Part of this Act to imprisonment or detention becomes unlawfully at large during the currency of the sentence, no account shall be taken, in calculating the period for which he is liable to be detained under his sentence, of the period beginning with the day on which he becomes unlawfully at large and ending with the day on which he is taken into naval, military or air force custody or the custody of a civil authority, as being a person unlawfully at large, or, not having been taken into such custody, returns to the place in which he was imprisoned or detained before he became unlawfully at large:

Provided that if it appears to the Admiralty that during any part of that period he was in the custody of a civil authority or of any naval, military or air force authority specified in Imprisonment and Detention Rules made for the purpose of paragraph (b) of the proviso to subsection (2) of section one hundred and nineteen of the Army Act, 1955, or the Air Force Act, 1955, that part of the period shall be disregarded for the purposes of this subsection.

(2)For the purposes of this section a person temporarily released from custody in pursuance of the appropriate rules or otherwise allowed out of naval, military, air force or civil custody for any period or subject to any condition, shall be treated as unlawfully at large if he fails to return at the expiration of the period, or to comply with the condition, as the case may be, or if an order recalling him has been made in pursuance of the said rules.

(3)In this section " the appropriate rules " means—

(a)in relation to a person serving a sentence in naval detention quarters, Naval Detention Quarters Rules;

(b)in relation to a person serving a sentence in military or air-force custody, Imprisonment and Detention Rules made under the Army Act, 1955, or the Air Force Act, 1955, as the case may be ;

(c)in relation to a person serving a sentence in civil custody, rules made under subsection (5) of section forty-seven of the Prison Act, 1952, subsection (6) of section thirty-five of the Prisons (Scotland) Act, 1952, or paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section thirteen of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953, or (in the case of a person serving a sentence outside the United Kingdom) any corresponding provision of the law of the country or territory in which he is serving his sentence;

and " civil authority " means a civil authority (whether of the United Kingdom or of any country or territory outside the United Kingdom) authorised by law to detain persons, and includes a .constable.

(4)In relation to any person committed or transferred to a civil prison in the United Kingdom, this section shall have effect in substitution for section forty-nine of the Prison Act, 1952, section thirty-seven of the Prisons (Scotland) Act, 1952, or section thirty-eight of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953, as the case may be.