§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list the number of persons committed to prison for failure to make maintenance payments to (a) former wives or husbands and (b) children of a former marriage; and what is the average length of the sentence;
(2) if he will list the total number of persons committed to prison due to their failure to meet maintenance payments; and if he will classify whether these persons have been in prison for the same offence on two, three, four, five or more subsequent occasions.
§ Mr. BrittanThe only information available relates to receptions into prison department establishments in England and Wales on committal by magistrates' courts for non-payment of wife's maintenance or children's maintenance, including cases where the marriage is still in existence, and arrears under an affiliation6W order. The number of such receptions is published annually in "Prison Statistics, England and Wales"(Table 6.1 of the issue for 1978, Cmnd 7626). The average length of committal of those received in 1978 for non-payment of wife's maintenance was 37 days, and of those received for non-payment of children's maintenance was 35 days. No information is available on previous such committals.