§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what records are kept by his Department of foreign nationals serving sentences in prisons in England and Wales; and how often these are updated. [26091]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility 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 Richard Tilt to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 24 April 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking what records are kept on foreign nationals in prisons in England and Wales.The information available centrally on individual prisoners is held on the Central System Database. Nationality information is included on that database and foreign nationals can be separately identified. The Central System Database is updated daily from information provided electronically by the individual prisons. Computer extracts are then taken once a month from the Central System Database for analytical purposes. Each prison will hold both manual and computer records for individual prisoners.