HC Deb 07 June 1993 vol 226 cc70-3W
Mr. Michael

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many young adult offenders were received into(a) Feltham prison, (b) Hull prison and (c) Leeds prison under sentence (i) in the last week for which figures are available, (ii) in the week ending 27 February and (iii) in the week ending 28 November 1992; and how many previous convictions they had individually and on average.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply.

Letter from A. J. Butler to Mr. Alun Michael, dated June 1993:

RECEPTIONS INTO FELTHAM, HULL AND LEEDS

The Secretary of State has asked me in the absence of the Director General from the office to write to you directly in reply to your Parliamentary Question about the number of sentenced young adult offenders received into Feltham, Leeds and Hull prisons and how many previous convictions they had individually and on average.

The information on receptions for the periods you have requested is not yet available. The readily available information relates to the population of sentenced prisoners (aged under 21) at Leeds, Hull and Feltham on 30 November 1992 and 28 February and 30 April 1993 and is given in Table 1.

As regard previous convictions information for November 1992 is not available. Available information for previous convictions relates to inmates who were in the prison

Table 2
Population under sentence in Feltham on 28 February and 30 April 1993 by previous convictions1
Date Population Previous convictions nil or not recorded2 Number of previous convictions
1 2 3 4 5 6–10 11 and over
28 February 1993 448 422 3 2 3 2 1 9 6
30 April 1993 493 473 3 2 3 1 1 6 4
1 Previous conviction information is not recorded for persons committed for non-payment of a fine.
2 Not separately identifiable.

Mr. Cox

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the percentage of(a) men and (b) women under the age of 21 years who were part of the prison population in England and Wales on 24 May.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply.

Letter from A. J. Butler to Mr. Tom Cox, dated June 1993:

Percentage of men and women aged under 21 who are part of the prison population in England and Wales

The Home Secretary has asked me in the absence of the Director General from the office, to write to you directly in reply to your Parliamentary Question about the percentage of (a) men and (b) women under the age of 21 years who were part of the prison population in England and Wales on 24 May 1993.

The last available information is based on the prison population aged under 21 on 30 April 1993. It shows that 0.39 per cent. of males aged 15 to 20 and 0.01 per cent. of females aged 15 to 20 in England and Wales were part of the prison population in Prison Service establishments on that date.

Mr. Cox

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the number of prisoners of United Kingdom nationality who were serving prison sentences in overseas countries who have been transferred to prisons in the United Kingdom to serve the remainder of their sentences in each of the last three years.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply.

population of these establishments on 28 February and 30 April 1993 and is shown in Table 2. I am afraid that this table provides little useful information because, owing to a computer problem, it is not possible to distinguish prisoners with no previous convictions from those for whom this information is not recorded.

Table 1 Population aged under 211 under sentence in prison service establishments in England and Wales on: 30 November 1992, 28 February and 31 March 19932
Number of prisoners
Date Leeds Feltham Hull
30 November 1992 386
28 February 1993 448
30 April 1993 493
1 Includes a small number of prisoners aged 21 held in the young offenders' institution at Feltham.
2 Includes those sentenced for non-payment of a fine.

Letter from A. J. Butler to Mr. Tom Cox, dated June 1993:

The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your Question about the transfer to this country from abroad of prisoners of United Kingdom nationality.

The number of prisoners of United Kingdom nationality transferred to the United Kingdom to serve the remainder of their sentences is as follows:

Year Number
1990 0
1991 14
1992 17

Mr. Cox

To ask the Secretary of State for The Home Department what was the prison population in each of the 12 member states of the EC as of the latest available date.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

The latest available information on the prison population for all 12 member states of the EC relates to September 1990. These figures are in table 2 of the Council of Europe Prison Information Bulletin, No. 16, a copy of which is in the Library. Data for September 1991 have been collected independently from a number of EC countries and was given in reply to the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Ms Ruddock) on 9 February, cols.532–34.

An article on "International comparisons of prison populations" by Collier and Tarling—Home Office research bulletin No. 23, pages 48 to 54—showed that the figures for different countries are unlikely to be strictly comparable because the definitions of prisons and prisoners vary from one country to another, reflecting different legal and administrative systems. Examples of differences in the definitions are the inclusion or exclusion in a country's figures of juvenile offenders and mentally disordered offenders.