§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the prison population had gained formal educational qualifications before entering prison.
§ Mrs. RumboldA national prison survey was conducted earlier this year, based on a 10 per cent. sample of the male 219W and a 20 per cent. sample of the female prison population. Preliminary results indicate that 57 per cent. of the prisoners sampled had some education qualifications when they came into prison. Of these, 8 per cent. had a vocational qualification, 36 per cent. had the equivalent of what was a GCE O-level as their highest qualification, and 8 per cent. had a higher qualification.
Population1 in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales on 30 June 1990: by ethnic origin and age. Number of Persons Age in years White West Indian Guyanese African Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese Arab Mixed origin Other, not recorded2 All persons 14–16 326 24 9 11 12 382 17–20 6,855 636 222 225 220 8,158 21–24 8,215 1,105 198 195 199 9,912 25–29 7,602 1,465 205 182 179 9,633 30–39 7,726 1,323 368 183 223 9,823 40–49 3,930 304 172 75 85 4,566 50–59 1,378 123 83 22 26 1,632 60 and over 368 22 18 4 5 417 All ages 36,400 5,002 1,275 897 949 44,523 1 Provisional Figures 2 Including refusals.