§ Lord Actonasked Her Majesty's Government:
- (a) how many women are currently in prison in England and Wales;
- (b) how many women they estimate will be in prison in England and Wales in 2005. [HL1603]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Williams of Mostyn)The number of women in prison on Friday 24 April was 3,086.
The female prison population in 2005 is projected to average 5,200. This is according to the regression projection published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin 2/98 Revised Projections of Long Term Trends in the Prison Population to 2005. A copy of this is in the Library.
Alternative scenarios are possible, and the bulletin illustrates how the female prison population in 2005 could lie between 3,000 and 5,500, depending on the assumptions made.