§ Lord Lamont of Lerwickasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish a table showing the total number of British citizens in prison in each country in the European Union; and how many, if any, in each country have been held in custody for longer than three months (a) without being given bail and (b) without being charged. [HL3082]
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean:As of 31 March 2003, we were aware of 815 Briitsh citizens detained in the European Union, 275 of whom had been detained for longer than 3 months without being given bail. We are unaware of any British prisoners being held in the EU for longer than three months without being charged.
The statistics represent only those prisoners who have asked the local authorities to inform the British consulate of their arrest and sentence.
The table below gives a breakdown of the numbers detained in each EU country.
Prisoners EU Countries Country Number of prisoners as of 31/3/03 Held over 3monthswithout being given bail (a) Held over 3monthswithout being charged (b) Austria 11 6 0 Belgium 22 12 0 Denmark 13 2 0 Finland 4 0 0 France 189 56 0 Germany 117 13 0 Greece 13 7 0 Ireland 97 6 0 Italy 17 0 0 Luxembourg 3 0 0 Netherlands 44 0 0 Portugal 15 0 0 Spain 250 173 0 Sweden 20 0 0 Total 815 275 0