HC Deb 22 January 2004 vol 416 cc1437-8W
Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners absconded from Ford Open Prison in each year since 1990. [146473]

Paul Goggins

Information is available from 1992. The information recorded at Prison Service headquarters on the reported numbers of absconds from HMP Ford is set out in the following table:

Year Number of prisoners absconding

from HMP Ford
1992 59
1993 39
1994 40
1995 20
1996 46
1997 51
1998 41
1999 56
2000 69

Year Number of prisoners absconding

from HMP Ford
2001 50
2002 86
2003 127

Figures are as recorded on the Prison Service incident reporting system and may not be entirely reliable, particularly prior to 1998 when changes were made to the electronic database.