Mr. Ted Fletcherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the annual cost of keeping debtors in prison.
§ Miss BaconThe average annual cost of maintaining a person in prison during the financial year 1963–64 was £587 4s. 11d. During 1963 the prisons contained a daily average of about 200 persons committed by county courts and of about 260 civil process prisoners committed by magistrates' courts; it is therefore estimated that the annual cost of maintaining such prisoners will have been about £270,000.