HC Deb 03 December 1987 vol 123 c680W
32. Mr. John Townend

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the total annual cost of keeping all the prisoners in Her Majesty's prisons who have been convicted of murder.

Mr. John Patten

It is not possible to distinguish the costs of keeping different types of prisoner in custody. The average annual cost of keeping a person in a penal establishment in 1986–87, the latest financial year for which information is available, was £13,104.