§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he intends to collect detailed statistics about the ethnic origins of people in prison; if so, for what purpose and to what use they will be put; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Mayhew:Subject to a satisfactory outcome of a feasibility study to be carried out shortly, my right hon. Friend hopes to start in 1982 the central collection of information on the ethnic origins of those received into Prison Department establishments. This would make it possible for example to assess the implications for the regimes of the various establishments of the ethnic origins of prisoners.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give details about the proportion of prisoners from ethnic minorities currently in each prison in England and Wales.
§ Mr. Mayhew:This information is not at present collected centrally.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were in prison at the latest available date; and how many he estimates will be in prison in April 1982.
§ Mr. Mayhew:The number of inmates in prison department establishments in England and Wales on 23 October was about 44,000. The latest available projections, which were made at the end of 1980 and do not take account of changes in policy or practice since 1980, were given in reply to the hon. Member for Bolton, East (Mr. Young) on 23 July.—[Vol. 9, c. 206.] It is not possible to give a reliable estimate of the population to be expected in April 1982 or any other specific date.