§ Mr. Peter Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many non-terrorist offence prisoners there are in Northern Ireland;
(2) how many people are presently serving prison sentences for terrorist offences in prisons in Northern Ireland; and how these compare with the figures for each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. John PattenInformation is not available in the form requested, but at April 3 1983, 1,539 persons in Northern Ireland were serving sentences for scheduled offences and 527 for non-scheduled offences.
Figures on prisoners serving sentences for scheduled offences are readily available only over the last six years. This information is as follows:
Date Number of prisoners serving sentences for scheduled offences 31 December 1977 1,735 31 December 1978 1,772 31 December 1979 1,762 31 December 1980 1,652 31 December 1981 1,602 31 December 1982 1,567