§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of the female prison population(a) have children and (b) have children under the age of four years. [28764]
§ Beverley HughesThe last major survey of mothers in prison was at the end of 1994. The findings were included in Home Office Research Study 162, "Imprisoned women and mothers", first published in 1997.
61 per cent. of the population surveyed were mothers of children under 18. 30 per cent. of these had children under five years.
Research conducted for Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prison's thematic review, "Women in Prison", published in 1997, indicated that 66 per cent. of the population surveyed were mothers, with over a third of the mothers having one child or more under five.