HC Deb 21 January 1988 vol 125 cc780-1W
21. Mr. John Townend

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the annual cost to public funds of all the prisoners convicted of murder held in Her Majesty's prisons, using as the basis of the calculation the average cost of keeping all prisoners in custody.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

The average annual cost of keeping a person in custody in 1986–87 was £13,104. On 30 September 1987 an estimated 1,850 prisoners were serving life sentences for murder in penal establishments in England and Wales, but the uneven distribution of convicted murderers throughout the prison system makes it impossible to calculate the cost of keeping them in custody.

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