HC Deb 14 July 1995 vol 263 cc819-21W
Mrs. Roche

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average and the minimum and maximum length of time which teenagers were held in prison awaiting trial in each of the last five years(a) in London and (b) nationally. [33806]

Miss Widdecombe

[holding answer 12 July 1995]: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Derek Lewis to Mrs. Barbara Roche, dated 14 July 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking what was the average and the minimum and maximum length of time for which teenagers were held in prisons awaiting trial in each of the last five years (a) in London and (b) nationally. Information is not available in the form requested, but information is available on the period spent on remand in a Prison Service establishment in England and Wales. Table 1 shows the number of 15–19 year olds on remand in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales by length of time since first reception on 31 December 1994. Table 2 shows the average completed time spent in custody. The historical information and separate information for London could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Corresponding information for all remand prisoners is published annually in "Prison Statistics, England and Wales" (Tables 2.3 and 2.4 of the 1993 edition, Cm2893) a copy of which is in the Library of the House.

Table 1: Remand prisoners aged 15–19 years in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales by length of time since first reception1 on 31 December 19942
Time since first remand 331 December 1994
Less than 3 months 1,300
Over 3 months up to 12 months 680
Over 12 months 48
1 Awaiting trial or sentence. Time since first reception on remand into a Prison Service establishment. This includes any intervening time spent on bail, but excludes time spent in police cells beforehand.
2 Provisional figures.
3 Rounded estimates.
4 One of which was held in an establishment in London on 31 December 1994.

Table 2: Estimated average time spent in custody for Untired and Convicted Unsentenced prisoners, aged 15–19, in Prison Service establishments in 19941
Type of custody align="right">Receptions in 1994 4Estimated average number of days in custody
Untried2 13,056 44
Convicted
Unsentenced3 8,052 33
1 Provisional figures.
2 Time spent in custody before conviction.
3 Time spent in custody after conviction before sentence.
4 Estimated from number of receptions and population in 1994 (as measured by population on 30 June).

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