§ Mr. William Rossasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will give, at the latest available 485W date, his estimate of the number of convicted prisoners in prisons in England and Wales who are (a) citizens of the Irish Republic, (b) could elect to become citizens of the Irish Republic and (c) have dual United Kingdom/Eire citizenship;
(2) how many convicted prisoners in prisons in England and Wales at the latest available date were born overseas; and, of these, how many were born in the Irish Republic;
(3) what was the total number of convicted prisoners in English and Welsh prisons at the latest available date.
§ Mr. HurdInformation is not recorded centrally on the nationality of persons held in prison department establishments in England and Wales. Information on their country of birth is recorded centrally but is reasonably complete only for sentenced or non-criminal prisoners. Of the 44,300 prisoners in such establishments on 31 May 1984 about 1,500 were convicted but unsentenced and about 35,700 were sentenced or were non-criminal prisoners. Of the latter, about 3,500 were known to have been born overseas including about 700 known to have been born in the Republic of Ireland; for about 1,500 the country of birth was not recorded.