§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the male population has experienced imprisonment. [10632]
§ 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. Harry Cohen, dated 16 January 1997:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the proportion of the male population who experienced imprisonment.The most recent available information was published in Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Criminal careers of those born between 1953 and 1973" (14/95). A copy of this bulletin has been placed in the Library.This bulletin gives estimates of the proportion those born in 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968 and 1973 who had been convicted for at least one standard list offence (standard list offences consist of all indictable offences and some of the more serious summary offences-see Appendix 5 of "Criminal statistics, England and Wales, 1995" (Cm. 3421) for further details). Table 4 in this bulletin contains estimates of the cumulative percentage of the population with a custodial sentence for a standard list offence by gender and age.366WBefore the age of 40 (the highest age for which figures based on complete conviction histories are currently available) it is estimated that just under 7 per cent. of males born in 1953 had been sentenced to custody.