§ Baroness Masham of Iltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the average custodial population of offenders aged under 17 and under 21 respectively in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995; how many of these were on remand; and how many were serving sentences of (a) under 12 months, (b) 12 months or more but under four years, and (c) four years or more.
§ Baroness BlatchResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Baroness Masham of Ilton from the Director of Finance of the Prison Service, Mr. Brian Landers, dated 18th March 1996.
Lady Blatch has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question asking what was the average custodial population of offenders aged under 17 and under 21 respectively in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995; how many of these were on remand; and how many were serving sentences of (a) under 12 months, (b) 12 months or more but under four years, and (c) four years or more.
The available information is for the prison population of young offenders at 30 June each year. Statistics for the years 1992 to 1994 are published in Prison statistics, England and Wales (Cm 3087 for the 1994 edition), copies of which are available from the Library. Table 3.2 gives the breakdown of the young offender prison population by age by type of custody. Table 3.1 shows an analysis by sentence length for all sentenced young offenders, which includes some 21 year-olds who were under 21 when sentenced. Information for 30 June 1995 is given in the attached table (1). The sentence length breakdown requested for young offenders aged under 17 for 30 June 1992 to 1995 is shown in table 2.
Table 1: Population of young offenders in prisons in England and Wales on 30th June 1995 Number Detention in a YOI 5,2731 Section 53 C&YP Act 1933 and custody for life 494 In default of payment of a fine 75 Untried 1,753 Convicted unsentenced 975 Total 8,570 1Of which 1,705 were sentenced to under 12 months, 2,767 for 12 months to less than 4 years and 801 to over 4 years (excluding life). 92WA
Table 2: Prison population of offenders aged under 171in England and Wales on 30 June 1992 to 1995 Type of prisoner 1992 1993 1994 1995 SENTENCED Detention in a YOI Less than 12 months 210 217 281 276 12 months 32 43 51 58 Over 12 months to 2 year2 — — — 23 All sentence lengths 242 260 332 357
Table 2: Prison population of offenders aged under 171 in England and Wales on 30 June 1992 to 1995 Type of prisoner 1992 1993 1994 1995 Section 53C & YP Act 1933 and custody for life 29 32 34 60 All sentenced 271 292 366 417 1Aged 15 and 16. Fourteen-year-old boys are included in the June 1992 figures; since October 1992 they are no longer held in Prison Service custody. 2Maximum sentence for juveniles (other than Section 53) increased from one to two years with effect from February 1995.