§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average sentence length of the prison population for each major ethnic group.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe readily available information for 1990 is given in the table. The differences between the average sentence lengths received by males in the major ethnic groups in 1984–85 were discussed in Home Office Statistical Bulletin Issue No. 17/86 "The Ethnic Origin of Prisoners: The Prison Population on 30 June 1985 and Persons Received July 1984—March 1985, paragraphs 24–27" a copy of which is in the Library. The differences were found to be associated with a range of factors including the type of offence, the type of court which had passed sentence, and the number of previous convictions.
The average sentence lengths recorded for some of the female groups may be unrepresentative in that they are based on small numbers of persons.
committee's agreement, we plan to make its report and the Government's response publicly available as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made.